TNG with Shari Abbott

Bestselling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland.

Bestselling author and apologist, Dylan Burrows. Together, bringing you truth for a new generation, this is TNG Radio. In Jude, verse 3, the Bible tells us to earnestly contend for the faith. And that verse is often used in apologetics in terms of standing up for what's true, present, explain, defend the faith.

Contending for the faith is standing up for God's Word. And you know, I really can't think of anybody who does such an exemplary job of contending for truth like the person I want you to meet. You know, traveling with the ministry, speaking all over the country, we meet a lot of people. And it's been our privilege several years ago to be friends or to make friends with Stephen Sherry Abbott from Ohio. And we've been able to communicate and write, and Sherry is an amazing apologist and theologian, really. And I wanted the listeners to meet her, and so Sherry, thanks for being on Truth for a New Generation Radio. And we're going to talk about a number of things, but I want to welcome you to the program. I want everybody to learn about the work you do, but I want to thank you for being an ambassador for the Gospel and a defender of the faith.

Thank you. I'm glad to be here. Well, tell everybody, as we record this, it's middle of July, beautiful summer of 2018, and we're at a wonderful place.

Tell everybody where we're recording. We are at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Training Center, which is commonly called the Cove, and we are here to hear Alex McFarland speak on the book of Amos. You know, God is so good. I was at Liberty in grad school when the Cove first opened 25 years ago, and I remember a brochure came in the mail, and I just thought it was so exciting, so beautiful. Never dreamed I would see it, but I said a prayer, and I said, Lord, someday I would love to be able to speak at the Cove.

And God's allowed me to do that a number of times, and there are people here from all around the country. I've been here to teach on a number of books, and we're doing Amos right now as you said, but I'm very excited. You came, and you've got a new book you've written, and you've... How many books have you written, Sherry? Uh, seven.

Seven. And one Bible study book. Now, no kidding, folks, and I love to try to encourage people, but this is not embellishment or any exaggeration. Your books are so strong and so solid and biblical, and I use them on several of the shows we do, prepping, answering people's questions, and I've come to the point where I research a lot of material, and I'll often say, I wonder what Sherry Abbott said about this. And your Got Questions book, I'll get off the shelf, and I want people to hear your story of how you came to the Lord, how you got into Scripture and theology and apologetics, but I do want to commend you for the writing and research. In my opinion, you're a superb writer and a very meticulous thinker, and how can people find you?

Where are your books available and your website and all that? Well, my books are good, because my God is good. Amen. He's the one that called me and put me into ministry, took me out of the secular world and secular profession, and called me into ministry work. And He is the one that has equipped me. So that's the only reason they're good. If anything I do is good, it's His doing through me.

If it's bad, then I take credit for it. And where may people find you online? They can find me at reasonsforhopejesus.com. That's reasons plural, forhopejesus.com. For, f-o-r, reasonsforhopejesus.com. Let me ask you this, what was your first book?

My first book was called Why the Butterfly. It's a book about remembering, and the premise of the book is remembering who God is, what He's done for us, and who we are in Christ. Because so often Christians are prone to wander, and that's when they fall.

Forgetting precedes falling always. Why is it important to know who we are in Christ? Because that's our identity. We are a new creation.

When He saves us and regenerates our souls and gives us a living soul once again, we become a new creation in Christ. And a lot of Christians don't fully understand the power that comes to live within them, and that can direct and guide their lives. Do you meet a lot of Christians that, they've trusted Christ, and yes, they're a believer.

We don't dispute that. But they really live a defeated life, and they really don't kind of thrive in their relationship with Jesus. What do you say to a person who kind of feels a sense of defeat? Well you know, I think that we all understand that the gospel is needed for salvation, for our justification in Christ. But sometimes a lot of Christians don't realize the gospel is needed just as much in their sanctification, or in their daily life, their daily walk after they've been saved. So really, it's getting them to focus back on the person of Christ and the works of Christ, and helping them to remember just exactly what Christ has done for them. And a lot of Christians may not even live a defeated life, but they don't live a life with their focus on Jesus. My dad used to say something, and I want your response to it. And my dad was a businessman and a farmer, but a pretty wise person, in my opinion.

My dad used to say, some people have been a Christian 20 years, and some people have been a Christian one year, 20 times. That explains what we're talking about. Yeah. For those just tuning in, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. Alex McFarland here. We're talking with Sherry Abbott, author of a number of very, very good books. And I'm just going to say thank you, because many a day I've been on live radio taking questions, and people say, you know, how do you know all the things you know?

And I prep, but I've been, during commercial breaks, gratefully thumbing through some of your books to prep for when I would come back after a commercial. So I just want to say thanks. You're very kind.

Who influenced you? Jesus. Amen. You know, once you start reading the Word, and you know, the hungry will always be fed. And Mary spoke about that even in her song, in Luke, that the hungry will always be fed, but the rich will be sent away empty. And the more we hunger for God, the more He will satisfy us and feed us with His Word and with His love and with His peace and with His joy. And if we don't hunger after that, you know, we talk about hungering after righteousness. That's in our sanctification, too.

If we don't hunger after that, we'll never be satisfied. And that's when we fall prone and fall prey to this world. Was there a book of the Bible that you were in when suddenly things began to click and your passion for the Scripture really got ignited?

I did go through a very difficult time in 2009. And the book of the Bible that really helped me through that, and it was a pastor who was teaching it, who has since become a friend, is the book of Colossians, and focusing on the supremacy of Christ. And he is sovereign over everything. We love the book of Colossians. You taught it last year at the Cove. We did. Hey, hold that thought.

We've got to take a break here. We're going to come back. Author, speaker, defender of the faith, Sherri Abbott is our guest on Truth For A New Generation radio.

Stay tuned, folks. We're going to be back after this with Truth, You Need To Know. For centuries, the Bible has inspired humanity and shaped the very world we live in. But how do we know this book is the Word of God and not merely the words of men? What we believe about the Bible is based on what we believe about its source. The God Who Speaks explores the evidence of the Bible's inspiration and authority through some of the world's most respected biblical scholars. We have essentially a dual authorship, so it's true to say that Paul wrote Romans. It's equally true to say that God wrote Romans.

He says, we saw this, and that sets the Bible apart from almost everything else in the ancient world and its religious pantheon of gods and goddesses. The God Who Speaks is a feature-length documentary from the American Family Association, available now at TheGodWhoSpeaks.org. 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 to 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 coming to you from The Cove, the beautiful Billy Graham Training Center. And this is not necessarily a promo for The Cove, but I do want to give the website.

It's thecovecov.org. They have seminars throughout the year, and as Sheri Abbott mentioned in the first segment, it's been my joy to come here a number of times. But oh, Erwin Lutzer comes here, Kay Arthur, John MacArthur, Josh McDowell, a lot of people come here. You and Steve have been here many times. Who all have you heard here besides myself? We've heard Lutzer a couple times.

We come every year to Will Grahams. He's doing 1 Samuel and doing a wonderful job on that. Isn't he great? He is a wonderful speaker. And we've heard, oh, it was a long time ago, Sinclair Ferguson. Oh, okay.

Sure. We've heard a lot of people here. Do you know who's a great speaker? We've used in Truth for a New Generation conferences, and he comes here, and I would love to have him back. It's Crawford Laritz. Oh, we saw him in March here.

Really? Yeah. He's one of my favorites. Do you know him? I figure you and Steve are probably... Well, we got to know him at the conference, but I teach a women's Bible study, and I use a lot of his materials.

Yeah. He's an amazing man of God. And for those tuning in, we're talking with Sherry Abbott. She is a friend and a colleague. She is a prolific author.

And by prolific, I mean, she really does, you know, put a lot of words on paper. How do you find time to do that? Late nights.

I'm the same way. Do you write, like, 9 to midnight? Well, a lot of...several of my books are actually resources from my website, too. Every week I write an article called God's Questions on Tuesdays, and those are questions that Christians are always asking. Some of the difficult questions from the Bible are just some of the difficult doctrines, and then on Fridays we do a Power of Hope article and something else to go with that.

So, several of the books are compilations of the God questions category. So how did you...I know you're a student of the Word. You came to the Lord at a young age, as you said. How did you get into Christian apologetics, Sherry? Well, I was in PR and marketing most of my career, banking prior to that, and then PR and marketing. And I worked for a woman I'd known for 30 years at that time, and she decided to sell the company. And so I did not have any interest in staying on. And so I was attending a Bible study at that time, and I told one of the people in the Bible study who had just started a ministry that I was free.

You know, I was going to be out of work in a few weeks, and I said, I can help you until I find...decide what I'm going to do. And so I did go start helping him, and then I ended up getting hired by that ministry. And I was with them for five years before starting ReasonsForHopeJesus.com. And I look back on it now, and I can see how God divinely orchestrated all of it.

There's a lot of backstory to it that I can really see God's hand in all of it. Any authors that especially influenced you or were your favorites? Like, I know a lot of people, myself included, got on the apologetics train through the writings of Josh McDowell.

Well, you're probably not going to like this, but Alex McFarland would be one of those, because in 2011 at the homeschool convention, I'd never heard of Alex McFarland. But I heard him speak there, and I was very impressed with the depth of his understanding, the logical and clear presentation of what he was teaching. And it was at that conference that I said to my husband, hey, this guy's at the Cove. We've got to go see him at the Cove. Went to the Cove, met you at the Cove, and got to know you at the Cove.

Then we went to TNG. So you definitely had an impact on me. Well, to God be the glory. And I know why our ministries kind of complement each other, and I think I know why we resonate. On the road, as an apologist, I'm always asked to speak about things that are pretty heady and cerebral, kind of C.S.

Lewis and philosophical. And hey, I mean, I'm there, and I know it, and I teach on it. But I also love the Word of God. And when you come to the Cove, friends, you're asked to teach the Bible. And apologetics might play a role in it, but the Cove is a place you come to learn the Scripture. And one thing that I've always wanted to do as an apologist, and you exemplify this as well, it's fine to read good books, but don't ever forget God's book.

And the wisdom of man is okay in doses, but the reality and the truth of God is where we feed. And in terms of apologetics, it's been my privilege to, I mean, been there, done that. I know every name in the apologetics pantheon. But a lot of the apologists, they forget, they know all about C.S. Lewis, Augustine, and Aquinas, but they forget Peter, Paul, James, and John, you know? And so I always encourage my students, as you drink from the well of worldview and apologetics, don't forget, it's all about Jesus, it's all about His Word.

Yeah, many fail to bring it home at the end of the message, or even throughout the whole message. And that's one of the things I've always seen in you. Your focus is on Christ. It's on serving Christ, not on just doing your job. And our job is apologetics, our job is to explain the Bible, but if our focus is always on Christ, He'll be the one, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that leads and directs our words.

Amen, amen. So for everyone listening, if you're just tuning in, this is Alex McFarland. We're talking with Sherry Abbott. She's an author, a theologian, and a defender of the faith. Very prolific writer, someone I highly recommend to you. She's the author of someone I highly recommend. Her books. Your website is phenomenal, by the way.

And frankly, I'm a little bit jealous. Thanks a lot for helping me break the tenth commandment and covet. But your website is really good, Sherry. And is ReasonsForHopeJesus.com.com. Let me ask you this, for those who may just be tuning in, who is Jesus? Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He is my all-in-all. He's the one who saved my soul, and He's the one that gives me hope in this world. I could just go on and on. For the person who says, yeah, but you don't know what I've done, I've got some stuff I'm not proud of.

I've got some stuff I'd just as soon forget. Does Jesus have anything for that person who feels a crushing weight of guilt? He has the answer. He has the remedy.

He loves them, and if they will repent of their sins and trust in Him, if they understand their need for a Savior and will repent of their sins and turn to Christ in faith, He'll save their souls, and He'll give them a new life and give them hope. When we come back, I want to talk about our view of God and making sure that the God we believe in really is, in fact, the true God. Stay tuned. This is TNG Radio.

We're back after this. Pope 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.

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Jesus, the one true God. Welcome back to TNG Radio. We are going to resume our conversation with Sherri Abbott. But before we do, I want to mention Truth for a New Generation.

Please go to the website truthforanewgeneration.com. We've got several exciting things coming up. Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, the big Fall 2018 TNG event, we're going to be there September 14 and 15. But Middle Tennessee State University, Thursday night September 13, we have a debate and it will be open to the public. So September 13, 14, 15. The conference, Josh McDowell, Dr. Michael Brown from American Family Association, Miki Addison, Tina Marie Griffin about being a Christian in Hollywood, Jay Warner Wallace, you've seen him on the History Channel, he wrote the famous book Cold Case Christianity, and so much more. And then Baton Rouge, Louisiana, October 26, 27.

Frank Turek, Michael Brown, Josh McDowell. It's going to be amazing. And our app for mobile devices, it works on all platforms regardless of the type of device you've got.

You can go to the App Store and get the TNG app. We're archiving more and more kind of an A to Z of my own writings. Sherri Abbott, who knows, maybe someday we'll be able to incorporate some of your articles. But I do want to encourage people to check out your books, The Got Questions. I like your book of quotations. Who said that? That's the title.

Who said that? I really like that. How did you come to write that book? This is an interesting story. I had put together a PowerPoint presentation for my Bible study that I teach. And it was all these different pithy sayings that come from the Bible. And it just so happened that the CEO for the ministry I was with before, who is a friend of both my husband's and mine and always stays at our house when he's in town, was in town that week. And so on a Wednesday morning before my Bible study, I said, hey, why don't you just stay and sit through the Bible study with the ladies?

They'd all love to meet you. So he did. Wade, you've met Wade. Oh, yes. I remember. So he did. And he said to me afterwards, that was great. He said, I want you to put that in a book.

And that's how it came about. Well, let's go to the important part of our conversation. And that's biblical literacy, biblical authority. Sherry, define, what is biblical literacy? I would say it's a historical grammatical understanding of the Bible, reading the Bible, understanding what's being said and keeping it in the proper context. Knowing the Word of God accurately.

Yeah. What would you say is biblical authority? Believing that every word is God-breathed. It's inerrant, without any errors, without any contradictions. You know, people will say there's contradictions in the Bible, but there aren't. You know, we can either research to find the answer, or we can trust in our God to know that it is not an error, an apparent contradiction.

There's always answers. Talk to me about what is the result of the church not letting Scripture be Scripture in our lives. We're not recognizing biblical authority.

What's the consequence of that? Well, I like to say that there's a group out there that's growing in numbers called the Let's Help God Society. I know what God said, but let me tell you what he meant.

Wow. And we're taking human thinking rather than sticking very closely and letting the Bible define the Bible, because if one passage isn't clear, you can always go to another passage that will further explain it. And the consequence is that we're making the Bible say what we want it to say, and that's usually compromising it with the world. Do you know what? C.S.

Lewis, venerated apologist, iconic name in Christendom. I've asked several publishers this. Mere Christianity, which is of course is a very famous book, I've said could mere Christianity get a book deal today, and publishers say not in its present form. Now it's in circulation. People buy it.

I hope they read it. But friend, and we're going to have to kind of wrap up with this. Sherry, I think our culture has become so accustomed to spin, and we twist and contort things to suit us rather than to convict us and change us. Charles Spurgeon, I love morning and evening devotions by Charles Spurgeon, but Spurgeon preaches heaven is real, hell is hot, sin is grievous, repent. I mean, it's a turn or burn message, but yet it's true. If we don't have Jesus Christ, we are lost. And we'll have to close with this for this meeting today. What is the answer to an itching ear culture that really has almost decided it will not hear truth?

Is there a response? More truth. We stand on the truth of God. And I certainly understand the spin.

I was in public relations for many years, and you are telling people, trying to influence them with your words and your understanding of a product or a company. But we have the truth. We don't have to spin it. We just have to speak it. And that's what we're charged to do, to be His ambassadors, to represent Jesus on this earth, to be His hands, His feet. If you could say one thing to the 345,000 Protestant churches in America, the three quarters of a million ordained clergy that are out there, they say.

You know, you and I earlier today talked about one's last will and testament. If you could give a message to the church of the 21st century, it would be what? Return to the Word. Return to the Lord. Repent.

Come back to Him. Don't forget your first love that's talked about in the book of Revelation. Don't be lukewarm like the Laodicean church they talk about in Revelation. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and then read His Word. And then love your neighbor.

You can't help but love your neighbor when you realize how much you're loved by Jesus. Amen. Return to the Word. We're almost out of time, but let me say this. If you need spiritual help, turn to Christ.

He's as close by as a prayer. We've got a little book that we have given out to literally tens of thousands of people, and the cover of the book says what does God say about my relationship with Him? And there is an explanation of the Gospel, then there's an explanation of what is a Christian worldview. We'll send you one of these for free. If you just write to us, the address is coming on at the end of the program, or you can go to TruthForANewGeneration.com.

And if you need this book, we'll be glad to send you one, no strings attached. May God bless you. Thanks for listening to our guest, Sherry Abbott.

Please keep us in prayer. Come to the conferences as you have opportunity, and if we can serve you in any way in your walk and your witness, please reach out to us, and we would be happy to do that for God's glory, for our good, and for His Kingdom. See you next time on TNG Radio. Truth For A New Generation, in association with Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, exists to equip Christians with a biblical worldview through conferences and camps. For information about upcoming events, visit TruthForAnewGeneration.com or give us a call at 877-YES-GOD-1.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. TNG Radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries. PO Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's PO Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com or TruthForAnewGeneration.com. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.