Interview with Ray Moore

Best-selling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Best-selling author and apologist, Dylan Burroughs. Together, bringing you truth.

For a new generation, this is TNG Radio. The Word of God tells us that Christians are to be salt and light in the culture, and more than ever, we need the church to be salt and light in the culture. I'm reminded of my friend, the late great Chuck Colson, who spoke for us four times in the Truth for a New Generation conferences.

Dr. Colson said that the church very much was to be the conscience of the culture. Let's think about that, and while you do, I'm so excited to welcome to the program a very, very special guest today. And I know wherever you're listening to this program from, you don't want to miss the next few minutes, because let me just say, in the course of ministry, you meet a lot of people. Some make more of an impression than others, but one person that I've looked up to for years, he's been a participant in our conferences, and I've really just, I suppose, in the last year gotten to know him better and better is Colonel Ray Moore. Ray Moore is an Army Reserve chaplain. He's a retired colonel, a veteran of Gulf War I. He is the recipient of a Bronze Star Medal, but he's also the founder and the president of Frontline Ministries and the Exodus Mandate.

He's got a master's degree in theology. I could tell you a lot of things about Ray Moore, but he's a man who loves God and country. He's definitely made an impact on our life, and he's a great colleague in the battle for the soul and the future of the United States of America, and I wanted to have him on TNG Radio. So, Ray, thanks for coming, and I know you drove a while to get here, and we're recording now, but I want to say welcome to TNG Radio. Thank you, and it's been a great pleasure and honor to be part of your conferences that you've had. I think I've come pretty consistently for the last eight years, when they were in Spartanburg and Charlotte, and then I went to the most recent one, too, so we're just glad to be part of it, and thank you for letting us speak some and also be a vendor there and make our mission known.

Well, and we want that to increase in the days ahead. I appreciate you so much, and by the way, I want to say thank you for serving our country. Thank you for being a veteran.

And let me ask you this. As one, and I want to talk about your Christian walk and your ministry, but just as a citizen and as a soldier and a veteran who served with honor in our armed forces, how do you feel about the current state of our nation? I know yesterday the whole wide world was just having all the attention focused on the Super Bowl, and some would not stand for our national anthem. Many did.

Some did not. As a veteran, how do you feel about the state of our country? I think we're in real danger. We're in trouble, and of course I think the armed forces, they generally reflect the culture. When I was in, there were a lot of Christians and a lot of patriots in key positions.

I don't know. I've been retired so long now. I can't tell you quite the status, but I do know a lot of people that have currently been in the Chaplain Corps, and that's what I was. I was an Army Chaplain, and a lot of them are very, very, very, very good men. So I'm a little out of touch with the details of the military since I've been retired, but I think, generally speaking, the culture is in real trouble.

That's one reason. I saw this problem coming many, many years ago, and that's one reason I launched the Exodus Mandate Project in 1997. Sure, and by the way, I do want to say we're so excited. We will be at Fort Bragg in May, May 3 and 4. We'll also be at Rockfish Church that very same weekend, but Colonel Moore, it's been our honor to be in talks with Fort Bragg. They've called us, and we've got favor with some of the chaplains there at the highest levels. So folks, please be in prayer for that, and as always, the events we've got around the country, we've got a lot of things going on in 2019. To win the lost, equip the saved, defend the faith, call the United States of America back to the Gospel. Go to TruthForANewGeneration.com.

But Colonel Moore, let me ask you this. Why do you think many of the millennials and younger, and certainly many in secular education, Democrat politics, why are so many trying to call people, especially young people, to really denigrate America? Why the lack of patriotism and even disdain for our free country? I think a major cause is our educational systems. Higher ed and K-12 education has been completely captured by the left and by globalists and by people who do not love our Constitution. They don't love our faith, the Christian faith. They don't love our history. Let me give you an example from higher ed. This was in the Wall Street Journal about a, maybe a little over a year ago, an article describing the left-right ratio of professors in our higher educational secular universities.

And when I finished college in 1965, it was a two-to-one ratio of left to right. Lisa— That's bad enough. That was bad enough. But today, it's ten-to-one. Oh, my word.

Really? Yeah, and in the social sciences, that'd be political science, philosophy, religion, sociology, government, that area, it's almost complete, total monopoly. I mean, when you get into those areas, you won't find hardly any conservatives. Now, there are conservatives that teach and Christians that teach in higher education. Now, we're not talking about Christian universities like Liberty or Bob Jones. We're talking about state-supported schools. Yeah, state-supported schools. And thank God for those kinds of schools that are putting out a Christian worldview, but we're looking at state-sponsored public education, higher education. The ones that do teach at a conservative would be in agriculture, business, maybe some in the sciences and engineering, but they're not allowed into the social sciences almost entirely.

So those are the—government, law, sociology, philosophy—those are the things that set the tone, political tone for a culture. So we're shut out. Well, exactly. And let me say to moms and dads, that's why we—and, you know, Angie and I, for 25 years, back in our days when we were in full-time youth ministry, and then I've been on the road for 22 years, but that's why we've been harping on, mom and dad, do not send your child to a university that will in four years dismantle what you've worked 18 years to try and instill. And, you know, schools like Liberty University that will affirm the child's faith rather than denigrate it.

But, Ray, that's amazing. A 10 to 1 ratio. A 10 to 1 ratio currently, and this is based on a very definitive article in the Wall Street Journal. Of course, if anybody wants to see it, I've got it in my office, and they could contact me for it. And by the way, what is your website?

What's the best way for people to follow you? Well, the website is exodusmandate—one word—Exodusmandate.org, and they can actually contact us online if they go there. And of course the office number is 803-714-1744. And let me put out the email. That's exodusmandate at gmail.com. Exodusmandate at gmail.com.

But the web—Exodusmandate.org is a web page. We have a lot of information there. Hey, folks, we've got a brief break. Stay tuned. You cannot miss this. Colonel Ray Moore, and we're talking about the future of the country based on the viewpoints of the people. Stay tuned.

TNG Radio is back right after this. You know, Alex has been writing for many years, and one of his classic books is still great today as a basic introduction to the Christian faith. It's called Stand, Core Truths You Must Know for an Unshakeable Faith.

This book will help you help your teens get off the roller coaster of doubt and onto solid ground. You'll read about the six pillars of biblical Christianity. They are, one, inspiration of the Bible, two, the virgin birth, three, the deity of Christ, four, atonement, five, Christ's resurrection, and six, Christ's return. You know, Alex mixes it up with humor and stories he gleaned from decades of working with youth and encourages teens to build a foundation of faith that will stabilize their lives and help them take a stand for Christ. Simple and straightforward, Stand, Core Truths You Must Know for an Unshakeable Faith. Available wherever Christian books are sold. 1 Peter 3.15 tells us to be ready always to give an answer for the hope we have.

We're instructed to be prepared to defend our faith. This is Alex McFarland for the Life Answers Teams, students we train at North Greenville University, a leading Christian college in South Carolina. The Life Answers Teams are made up of students who will inspire and equip your congregation. These apologetics teams we train speak in churches to youth groups and train Christians of all ages to address key issues of our times from a biblical perspective. Like is there a God? Is the Bible true?

What about gender and moral issues? Call me at 864-977-2008 and we will arrange for the Life Answers Team to come to your church and give a presentation that will benefit your people for years to come. 864-977-2008 and always be ready. The Word of God says, if the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? That's Psalm 11.3.

If the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous do? Welcome back to TNG Radio. Alex McFarland here with our very special friend and colleague Colonel Ray Moore. And you know, before the break you were talking about the Wall Street Journal saying that the faculty ratio of liberals versus conservatives is ten to one. Let me ask you about denominational schools because every now and then, and by God's grace I've spoken at a couple of hundred colleges and many of which were at one point in their history denominational schools like Furman. But moms and dads often say, well, I know the university landscape is a battlefield. There are some shark-infested waters in academia.

But Alex, don't worry. My child is going to Emory or some denominationally tied school. What is your take on the theological and spiritual health of those schools though?

Some are good. You know, Furman obviously has gone off the rails back in the 40s and 50s. In fact, there used to be a joke in South Carolina, send your child to Furman and make a unitarian out of him. Wow. A Baptist school.

Yeah, yeah. That's not, that's, you know, it may be a little strong, but I had a good friend that graduated there even I think in the 70s and he was a religion major and he was speaking to the dean of Furman's religion department. He was a religion major and a very strong evangelical Baptist. And he asked him and he said, why don't you at least teach the historic Baptist position? You teach all this liberal theology. Why don't you just offer the Baptist position, our historic Baptist traditional position as one of the options?

You don't have to teach it, but just teach it as one of the options. And the dean of the religion school at Furman said, no, we couldn't do that because it wouldn't be academically respectable. So, I mean, now that's a real old story probably going back into the 70s, but I hate to pick on Furman because they do have many good academic programs there, but they're not really conservative theologically. Sure, sure.

And, you know, let me just say this folks. We're not bashing education. I believe that Christians really have a stewardship responsibility to the Lord to attend to learning and the life of the mind.

Let me challenge you even if maybe you're retired, maybe your school days are long behind you, or maybe you're a child. We have listeners of all ages, Colonel Moore, but I want to say one of the great privileges of being a human being and being a Christian is to learn. And please, we would beg of you, be a reader. I'll just tell you growing up in the family we were expected to read. My mother and dad, they wanted us to read the encyclopedia. They wanted us to read all kinds of things, not only the Word of God, but to be a lifelong learner. And so a big part of the revival our nation needs and a big part of the awakening we need has got to be that within the heart of Christians and within the body of Christ is a quest for knowledge and truth that will change our lives, that will change the culture. Now today is a very special day because as we record this, folks, we're recording this in early February and this will air throughout the second week of February, but congratulations because I'm holding in my hand the New American, February 4, 2019, a magazine that says that freedom shall not perish, the cover story, special report on education, rescuing our children, and you've got a feature article in here and we're recording the day that this release is.

Let me read this. From educational excellence to mediocrity, today America is facing an educational cataclysm that literally threatens its survival, but the threat did not suddenly materialize out of thin air or come from natural forces. You are the feature of this issue and I congratulate you and I want to talk about what's in this.

Darrell Bock Very important issue and it's actually arriving in homes probably today and this week, so it's exciting and we've been kind of tracking it and advising the writers of over a year at least. It's got 10 articles. Five of them are explaining what went wrong with education. It looks primarily, Alex, at K-12 education, which is what Exodus Mandate focuses on. I'm concerned about higher ed, but my ministry focuses on K-12 Christian, advancing Christian schools and homeschooling. So five articles are explaining the errors and what's happened to our public school system over the last really 175 years, going back to Horace Mann and John Dewey.

Darrell Bock Okay, and tell us who those people were. Darrell Bock Okay, well Horace Mann is given the title of the father of public education and around 1840 was when we dated the emergence of state-sponsored, state-controlled, tax-subsidized education from about 1840. Now prior to that, we had no state-sponsored, tax-subsidized public schools. We did have local community schools that sometimes had a tax subsidy, but they were more like Christian schools than public schools. And so for 200 years of American history, we had no state-run public schools and Horace Mann brought that in in Boston and Massachusetts from 1837 to 1845 and he was a virulent anti-Christian Unitarian. So he was given the title, the father of public education and I want to be sure that he keeps that title because Christians should be offended at what he did.

Around the turn of the 20th century, John Dewey came along and he's considered the father of progressive education and that's when he brought in socialism, humanism and that then began to permeate the entire public school system. So what we have today is just a brilliant anti-Christian atheistic model. Dr. Darrell Bock What do you say to the parent who says, well, you know, I want my son or daughter, I know the state school or my alma mater has really gone sideways against God and country, but I want them to get their degree where I did my degree 25 years ago. What do you say to the parent that chooses an emotional decision rather than a stewardship of their child's mind and soul decision?

Dr. Darrell Bock You're playing Russian roulette with your children's soul. If you look at the data, there is some data on this, about 80 percent of evangelical Christian children who are public school through their entire career abandoned the church and the Christian faith, most never to return. But yet we have data on homeschooling and 93 percent of children who are homeschooled in a Christian context continue on in the Christian faith and the traditions of their parents. Now, sadly, some of the Christian schools are not as strong enough. We have about a 60 percent retention rate there.

So some of them, because of some of the secular curriculum in the Christian schools, don't follow on as strongly as the homeschools. But we have real good data on public school children. If you want to guarantee... Dr. Darrell Bock And the attrition rate... Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah, the attrition rate is terrible. Dr. Darrell Bock It is very sad. Hey, we've got to take a break.

Stay tuned. More about the thought, the education, the mind, the soul, the destiny, the future of people and this country on today's edition of TNG Radio with Ray Moore. Ray Moore Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion and war. Too often we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ.

How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions? In 10 Issues That Divide Christians, Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography and environmentalism as he echoes the biblical invitation, Come, let us reason together. Only by engaging the scriptures deeply, thinking clearly and speaking truthfully, can we in God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose. 10 Issues That Divide Christians.

Find this book and many others at AlexMcFarland.com. If you're a Christian parent, you of course want to instill a biblical view of life in the hearts of your children. If you're a pastor, you want to offer ministry that draws young families to your church. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to check out my new book and video curriculum, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. Why do bad things happen? I interviewed hundreds of children ages 5-12 and we address actual questions from actual children, the spiritual issues that are on the minds of your kids.

Did Jesus ever sin? The book and video lessons are great for groups of any size and was produced with the goal of equipping kids to stand strong for Christ in any situation. The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, the book, study guide and video series, you'll find it at AFASTORE.net. Welcome back to TNG Radio. Alex McFarland here with our very special guest, Colonel Ray Moore, godly man, Christian leader, an American hero who has serviced our country through the armed forces and the Gulf War, Bronze Star, president of Frontline Ministries based out of South Carolina, but touching the nation. I do want to encourage everybody to please go to Truth4ANewGeneration.com. We've got a lot of things coming up in 2019, but not the least of which is our apologetics summer camp. It's coming up in July, the end of July, July 21-26. We're going to be at Eastern North Carolina, Camp Kale, C-A-L-E. Camp Kale is beautiful. I've been there many times. There's going to be kayaking and swimming and ropes course and all kinds of things, but the best part of all, 15 sessions, 15 sessions on apologetics, worldview. Last year we had 50x14s from nine states. They loved it.

All they were asking was why couldn't it have lasted longer, but here's the thing. It's going to be $349, $349, plus you have to get your youth group to Camp Kale, which is near Elizabeth City in Eastern North Carolina. It's going to be amazing. My dear friend and colleague, Andy Laurenson, is going to be there.

Very special music, great food, great fun, the best part of all. Your child will learn how to defend the faith, stand for what they know is right. So here's what you do. I'm going to give you two bits of information, folks. Listen very carefully. You can call 877-YES-GOD1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D1, or email my assistant Carla, Carla McGlinn, and if you've been around T&G long, you know Carla, C-A-R-L-A, Carla at TruthForaNewGeneration.com. The camp will sell out fast, so we want you and your group or your child to be there. Back to the conversation with Ray Moore. By the way, congratulations, The New American, you're the featured contributor, the February 4th edition, Rescuing Our Children. Congratulations. By the way, where might people get this magazine?

They can get it by going online and to jbs.org, shop, s-h-o-p, jbs.org, or they could call their toll-free number, 800-342-6491. And they can order them in bulk if they want to, and we're asking people to consider that and giving them out at their churches and to pastors in their neighborhood. Let's talk about homeschooling. Okay, well, we have a good article in this issue about it by Israel Wayne, and he was, his family were pioneers in homeschooling in the modern era, just as my wife and I were, and that's a very interesting article.

It talks about the early hostility that they experienced and then how they won their freedom. So now about 2.8 million children, we're not absolutely sure, are being homeschooled. And we have a long history now, so we know that it works. We always believe the Bible taught that parents should be involved, but now we actually have empirical data. And these kids turn out so much better. The National Home Education Research Institute, Dr. Brian Ray did a study, I think maybe about 10 years ago, and that's where we get the 93 percent of them that continue the Christian faith.

But they have more stable marriages, they have more stable work habits, and they're better contributors in their community than their public school counterparts. So it's very normal, and I have four adult children that were homeschooled starting in the 70s, one's 48, 43, 40, and 36. And my oldest son finished the synodal, the Military College of South Carolina, in 93. And he was one of the first homeschool students to go through the modern era. He was valedictorian and cadet colonel regimental commander. That's only happened four times in 175-year history of the school.

So I mean, I hate to have to brag there, but it worked in our family, and there are many stories like that. Dr. Darrell Bock Sure. Well, in the magazine here, it says, Christians getting out after acknowledging that leftists control the content of public schools and are propagandizing the children to their views, Ray Moore decided to get the kids out. Tell me about Exodus Mandate and Frontline Ministries.

Dr. Darrell Bock Okay. Exodus Mandate is what we're best known for, and it is a Christian ministry to encourage and assist Christian families and churches to leave behind the state-run public school system for the promised land of Christian schools of homeschooling. Additionally, it's our hope and prayer that a fresh obedience – that's a key word – fresh obedience by Christian families in educating their children according to biblical commands will be a key for the revival of our families, our churches, and our nation. You talk about revival, and I think this is the key to revival. If we don't save the next generation, there won't be a revival. Dr. Darrell Bock Amen.

You know, you and I have talked about a lot of things, and in 1923, the atheist communist, Antonio Gramsci, challenged his fellow communists to make, quote, the long walk through the institutions – the classroom, the government, even the church. We've got to do that. I know the rapture can come. The Lord will return. But as long as we're here in this world, we've got to be in this, the battle for truth and for freedom and for the souls of people, the Great Commission.

We've got to be in it for the long haul. Dr. Darrell Bock Right. We take the position that you can reform what God has ordained, like the family. We have marriages that are in disarray, but God ordained marriage. He ordained the family.

So you can reform and recover that. He ordained the church as an institution. He ordained government as an institution, but he did not ordain government education.

That was assigned jurisdictionally to the family and the church. So to say we're going to reform public schools, we think, is a mistake because God didn't assign it to government. Dr. Darrell Bock Right. Dr. Darrell Bock And a lot of Christians say, oh, we've got to get in there and fix the schools. We say, no, we need to abandon them. And if we abandon them in enough numbers, if the evangelical people alone would pull out and start Christian schools and homeschooling, we could collapse the state model and go back to the original American model, which was Christian education.

But 200 years of American history, we had no state-run public schools. A lot of people do not know that. Dr. Darrell Bock Well, we've got to pull away here. Psalm 11 3, again, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? That's a rhetorical question.

If the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous fate be? Not good. Folks, Ray Moore and what he does. Ray is a man you want to know about, you need to know about. We'll have him back very, very soon.

Got to pull away right now. Thanks for your prayers and support. Thanks for listening. And please, we hope to see you at one of the Truth For A New Generation events in your area this year. Dr. Darrell Bock Thanks for listening. And join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.