Top Issues (So Far) for Christians in 2019

So what are the top issues for Christians, at least so far, in 2019? Todd Friel joins us today right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and also to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God if they would repent of their sins. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Thanks for joining us today for another edition of the Christian Worldview radio program. Todd Friel is the longtime host of a popular radio and television program called Wretched.

It's based in Atlanta and broadcasts nationwide. The program focuses on evangelism, theology, apologetics, and current events. He recently visited Minnesota, the state where he lived for much of his life and where the Christian Worldview is based. And so I asked Todd if he'd be willing to do an in-studio interview to discuss the top five things he's been covering on his own programs this year. So as we get to the interview today, I hope you'll be informed and be biblical as we think through these key issues of our day. And let's get to the first segment. So as we get to the interview today, I hope you'll be informed and be biblical as we think through these key issues of our day.

And let's get to the first segment with Todd Friel. One of the big stories this year in evangelicalism was the fact that Joshua Harris, well-known author, former pastor, announced that he was getting separated and didn't consider himself to be a Christian any longer. And also recently, one of the musicians from Hillsong, I believe was, can't remember his name, said the same thing. How do you explain how something like that happens? When we see these things, people tend to get a little bit panicked. How can a guy like that who's been in the spotlight of evangelical Christianity for so long possibly renounce his faith? It should give us confidence that the Bible is inspired. Jesus promised this would happen. The conversations that Jesus had on the subject of false converts, those who profess to be a believer but don't possess a self-saving faith. I got that from your book. Well, it wasn't my concept, but I like it.

But I did take it from you. It should give us confidence that Jesus knew what he was talking about. So he made these predictions that this was going to happen. And so when we see it, don't let it rock your faith. Let it give you assurance that the Bible is indeed the word of God.

Now to answer your question, because I do think that's the big takeaway from these things. I think our theology, 1 John 2, that they went out from among us because they were never a part of us in the first place. He was a part of evangelical Christianity. He was probably called on a little bit too soon to be thrust into the spotlight without any testing to see if he was really sound in his theology and faith. So he simply demonstrated that while he made a profession of faith, he wasn't really a Christian.

And that too can scare people. So we want to be careful that we make sure we should examine ourselves to see if we are in the truth, but it shouldn't become an obsession of ours. And every little sin that we commit, none of them are little, shouldn't cause us to think that we are suddenly a Josh Harris. So examine yourself, see if you're in the faith so that you don't find yourself like Josh Harris who wasn't in the faith at all. There has been a lot of conversation about the celebrity culture within the evangelical church.

They build up people who are Christian leaders, they write books, they speak at conferences, they have multi-site churches. Why does that happen? What is your response to how that happens?

Kind of mixed on that. I want to be careful we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. If you had told evangelicals a hundred years ago, hey, there's going to be these devices and mechanisms where you could get the gospel of Jesus Christ to billions of people.

It's called media, internet, computers, satellites, cable, telephone, all of those things. They'd say, bring it on, bring it on. We can use that. Well, with that has come some unfortunate fruit like Josh Harris. We elevate some men who should not be put up on a pedestal. We tend to look at them with, I think, a little bit more of them being role models than we probably should. And if nothing else from this Josh Harris debacle, who are the men that we should be esteeming? Who are the ones that we should be looking at? And I'll tell you who they are. They're not far away from you. They're the pastor in your local church.

We all love guys like John MacArthur, name your favorite. And that's great. And we should benefit from them. We should praise God for them. But we can't examine them like we can examine our local pastor. Watch his life. Put your pastor on a pedestal, if you will, and benefit from these brilliant men that God has provided great gifts to, including internet and social media.

Let's eat the meat and spit out the bones. We've all said Todd Friel with us today on the Christian World of Your Radio program. He's the host of Wretched TV and Radio.

Lots of great resources you can find on their website, Wretched.org. Okay, let's go from celebrities who quote unquote lose their faith to then the follow up question is about assurance of salvation. Can I say one more thing about Josh?

I'm sorry. This is just this is a big deal because a lot of Christians get pretty wobbly need after something like this. I think Josh's writings make it pretty clear what what was off there. Even he confessed that his religious faith was more of a system, how to have a good marriage, how to find a good spouse, how to live a good life. Look, that's not Christianity. Christianity is about being reconciled to your God. And of course, his statutes are for us to benefit and to grow and to live rightly. But that's that's a minimalization of Christianity and a lot of world systems provide you with a good way to live. Christianity is about being reconciled to God. He revealed he had kind of just bought into, you know, this kind of work and that's good. I've got good connections.

I'm making a living, nice relationships. Be careful that your Christian faith is based on the right thing. In other words, it's not about a way to live. It's about a God to know and follow and obey and worship.

Yeah. And somebody right away will tag you on that and say, well, are you saying that we shouldn't live that way? No, we're not saying that. But that's not what Christianity is. Christianity is you can be reconciled with the creator of the universe who was formerly your enemy. Now you can be reconciled. And because he provided that reconciliation, now we obey and we live and life tends to go better. But if we divorce the latter from the former, then then you're just in a system. Right.

Now, well said again, Todd Friel with us today. So let's move on to the assurance of salvation piece to this. You know, you'll hear someone say in response to Joshua Harris's departure, well, if one chooses faith in Christ, one can choose to walk away.

That's how they would explain that. Why is that biblically inaccurate? Well, I can't help but think about Romans 828. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined, he elected people in eternity past. He sent out a general call through preachers and teachers and through his word. He gave the effectual call. Those he justified. He sank.

By the way, it's arist, meaning past tense and active, meaning he did everything. So he justified. He sanctified and he glorified. You can't get yourself saved.

You can't get yourself lost. And that is a joyous message. And I wonder if because there's so much wonky preaching and so much squishy, watered down, lovey dovey, God just he's nuts about you. And just ask him in your heart that we sometimes as conservative Bible believing Christians forget God saved us. He's not going to let us go. If you can choose to no longer be a Christian.

Congratulations. You are more powerful than the God who saved you. God is not going to be thwarted in his plans. He who began a good work in you, he's faithful to complete it in you. If you can somehow lose your faith. Congratulations.

You have destroyed the intercessory work of the Holy Spirit and of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they are interceding for you. Even now, you congratulations. God created a universe, spoke it into existence. Six twenty four hour days, not all that long ago.

Ex nihilo. He promised to send a seed. He accomplished it.

Every single book in the Old Testament is pointing to the seed Jesus Christ. He delivered on time at the right time. Born of a virgin, lived under the law. He was crucified rose.

He accomplished all of that. Two thousand years of church history, saving maybe billions of people. But you come along and you destroy the whole plan by losing your salvation. Now, it sounds kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? And it is. And that should bring us great comfort that you are in the Savior's hands and you yourself cannot snatch you from. That's right. John 10.

No one can snatch them out of my father's hands. Todd Friel with us today. So to explain Joshua Harris's departure would be unless we see him repent and return. It's likely that Josh Harris was never genuinely converted. And more than not likely, if he is denouncing the faith and persevering in that till he dies.

And he never was among us in the first place. OK, let's go from celebrities who lose their faith to talking about the assurance of salvation. That's what that question brings up to next. You talked about another topic you've been talking about in your radio and television programs, a gospel that makes Jesus desirable.

What does that mean? And then part B of the question is, how would you describe how the gospel is being presented in mainstream evangelicalism today? Yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot because you can't help but look at our culture and wonder where did what happened here? You know, this used to be the majority religion with so much influence in our culture.

What went wrong? Why do we see 18 percent of Christians say they read their Bible on a regular basis? 18 percent giving. It's it's puny compared to the number of Christians. There are 340 to 360 thousand Christian churches in this country.

The national anthem. It really should be a mighty fortress is our God with that many Christian outposts. Our saltiness is gone. The light is dim. And I think one of the reasons is because of the false convert rate that exists and secularism.

I think science with its inroads. I think a lot of kids who went to silly youth group programs. They never really were presented with a serious faith.

They run off to university. They hear some serious professors and they're persuaded to to leave the faith of their fathers. Recently reading Blaise Pascal, an interesting fellow, 1700s, he was he was Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, he was wondering, why are why is atheism having so many inroads in Western Europe? And his pen says his thoughts, French word for thoughts.

It's where we get the God shaped hole in your heart. Right. We've kind of butchered that. But nevertheless, he was having thoughts. And what he was considering was how do we present the Christian faith as being so amazing that people will want it? And then we demonstrate it's true.

And it got me to thinking these days we've been doing it in reverse. One of the big stories this year and even. OK, we'll take our first break of the day here on the Christian Real View, you're listening to an interview with Todd Friel. He's the host of the Wretched television and radio programs.

Our Web site is Wretched.org. And by the way, Todd is in Minneapolis right now. So for our Twin Cities listeners, he's going to be preaching tomorrow. That's Sunday, August 25th at Faith Bible Church, which meets at the University of Northwestern and St. Paul.

I believe their service time is nine thirty a.m. during the summer. Also, just before the break, I just want to remind you that we are coming up very quickly on our Christian Real View events in mid September. The Speaker Series event on Sunday, September 15th. You'll hear about it in the ads today at Grace Church, Eden Prairie, the impact of social justice on the church and the gospel. Todd Friel is going to talk about that in a second. But Darrell Harrison is our speaker coming for that event on September 15th.

No registration, no cost. Music by Higher Call Quartet, Q&A after the message. We're really looking forward to this event. Grace Church, Eden Prairie, Sunday, September 15th. And then the next day, September 16th, is our annual Golf and Dinner event. You can find out more about that and you can register.

It has to be done by the day after Labor Day, Tuesday, September 3rd. All the information is on our Web site, thechristianworldview.org. A lot more coming up with Todd Friel next as we talk about top issues for Christians so far in 2019.

This is the Christian Real View. The next Christian World View Speaker Series event is on Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church, Eden Prairie. It features Darrell Harrison presenting on how social justice impacts the gospel and the church. Darrell is a former fellow of the Black Theology and Leadership Institute at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expository Bible teacher. He has a passion for helping Christians understand what they believe and why. He'll do just that with the issue of social justice, followed by a Q&A moderated by host David Wheaton.

No cost, no registration, just come. The event will also be live streamed on the Christian World View Facebook page. For more information, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. The Christian World View Speaker Series with Darrell Harrison, Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church, Eden Prairie.

Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. The prosperity gospel is a prominent false gospel that God offers health, wealth, and prosperity if you just have faith and give money. Costi Hinn grew up on the inside of the prosperity gospel movement.

His uncle is world renowned prosperity preacher Benny Hinn. Costi saw it all, the manipulation, staged healings, luxuriant lifestyles, and perversion of scripture before God opened Costi's eyes to understand sound doctrine and believe in the true gospel. Now a pastor, Costi has written an important book entitled God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel which chronicles his own experience and gracefully points the reader to the truth of scripture. For a limited time, you can order this 224 page soft cover book for a donation of any amount to the Christian World View.

Normal retail is $17.99 without shipping. To order, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. To think biblically and live accordingly. That is what we aim to do as we cover the topics we do here on the Christian World View radio program. There's something here for believers. We want you to have a sharper biblical world view so that you can live your life and think your thoughts in a way that is more pleasing to God. And also we want to have a message here for unbelievers that you can be reconciled with God as Todd Friel was talking about there in the first segment.

That's really what it's about. You need to be reconciled. That's a biblical word. You need to be reconciled that something needs to be made right between you and God because of our sin separates us from God but God wants to be reconciled to you and he offers a way to do that through sending his son to pay the penalty we deserve to pay for our sin on the cross so that when we repent and put our faith in what Christ did for us, God will reconcile us to himself. So thanks for joining us today here on the Christian World View. We're talking about top issues for Christians so far in 2019. I asked Todd Friel who was on a trip up here to the upper Midwest in Minnesota for an interview in studio and said what are some of the big issues you've been discussing on your program this year and he listed six. And so we talked about celebrities who lose their faith, the assurance of salvation, and now we're going to get into the gospel preaching that makes Jesus desirable. Let's get back to the interview with Todd Friel. Another topic you've been talking about in your radio and television programs, a gospel that makes Jesus desirable.

What does that mean? Yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot because you can't help but look at our culture and wonder, what happened here? This used to be the majority religion with so much influence in our culture.

What went wrong? Why do we see 18% of Christians say they read their Bible on a regular basis? 18% giving. It's puny compared to the number of Christians. How do we present the Christian faith as being so amazing that people will want it? And then we demonstrate it's true. And it got me to thinking these days we've been doing it in reverse.

We've been on our heels. We study apologetics all well and good. What about textual criticism? What about manuscripts? How about prophecies fulfilled?

All very good. But it's very defensive posture as opposed to lifting up the Christ as the beautiful one that he is so that people see him and go, I want that. Recently I was spending some time with Pastor Mike Riccardi. Great preacher. If you've never heard about Mike Riccardi, you've got to go look this guy up. Look this guy up. He's just terrific. You've had him on the program? Yes.

Whippersnapper. Yeah. You know what? He preaches like nobody's business.

Yeah. And we were with him and I said, would you please preach the gospel? David, I wanted to get saved again. I'm paraphrasing.

I'm not doing it any justice. But this was an example of what I've been thinking about with how we present the gospel. When we began it like this, would you not want to know the most majestic entity in the universe? Would you not want to know the one who is glorious, magnificent, loving, kind, and always truthful? Wouldn't you want to know the one who laid down his life for you? You can.

You can have your sins forgiven by the glorious God who saw you in your pathetic state and took mercy on you and sent his son to die on your behalf. Wouldn't you want to know this God? And I thought, that's getting somewhere. That's making it like, whoa, presenting the gospel in such a way that it makes it attractive. And then if people ask, is it true?

Did this really happen for me? Right. We can trot out all of our apologetics, but let's set him up as desirable and then let's defend it.

Yeah. I think that's a great point you make there. It's so true. Starting with trying to convince people apologetically, intellectually. But really, again, it goes back to this is your creator. This is the God of the universe.

You can be in relationship with him. You can live the purpose for which you were created. You can be, as you mentioned earlier, reconciled to God. I've been thinking about the suicide issue, too. You know, the kids are killing themselves, unprecedented rates.

Why is this happening? Sorry for the analogy, but I think it works, nevertheless, to help people understand. No other religion can explain why we see such ugliness and beauty outside of us and inside of us. The Christian faith does. Actually, Pascal was saying, let's not be shying away from original sin, because it really explains our state and reality.

It helps us understand reality. That Steve Jobs is to Apple what God is to you. Steve Jobs designed a computer. God designed you. Steve Jobs designed that computer to run with certain operating systems. And if you use the wrong one, it's not going to run right.

Same thing with you. God designed you to run on his operating system. It's called the Bible.

And when you don't, you're listening to the lies of the world and you're not going to run right. And so what God wants to do for us is save us, reconcile us, forgive all of our sins. But then he goes about the process of rebooting us, if you will, and just imprinting new software into us, the Bible. And that is where emotional healing comes from. We deal with our issues of anger, the guilt, the shame that we all experience and feel, the bad thinking and processing, wrong priorities, wrong desires.

He just reboots it. And with the word being imprinted on our brains makes us more and more like him so that we can know what real joy is. People don't even know what that is. Fundamentally, we look at our society and say, oh, things are falling apart. Look at all these crazy things that are happening.

Men who think they're women and the affirmation of that society. All this is just fundamentally a rejection of God and what he stated in his word. And when you reject that, things just go crazy and go insane. It shouldn't surprise us that the West is debasing itself. And it's all surrounding sexual issues because everybody's seeking self-pleasure and they think that's it. That's a lie. The world system, which is led by the devil, happens to be the father of lies who started lying in the garden saying, trust me, don't trust God, trust me.

Of course, it would boil down to self-pleasure, defining it any single way that you want to. It's because their brains have been running on the wrong software, the world system software. David, you know this, you've got a wife, you've got a lovely boy, those joys of sitting around the table, your lovely family, those are profound. The world doesn't even know it. They would look at you and go, you've got seven heads. They don't even realize the sweetness of those things that God says, this is the good stuff right here.

So they chase after the wrong things, looking for the basest pleasures possible because they've been running on the wrong software. Todd Friel with us today on The Christian Real View, the host of Wretched TV and radio program, their website, where you can find all kinds of incredibly helpful resources is wretched.org. Let's move now to one of the big issues going on in the evangelical church today.

It already took over the mainstream Protestant churches back in the early 1900s, the issue of social justice. We're actually having our upcoming Christian Real View speaker series event on this particular topic. We're going to love Daryl. We're going to have such a good time.

Yeah, Daryl Harrison, we're very much looking forward to that. What caused this new tack to go down the route of social justice? Maybe you could define what evangelicals who think that should be a priority, what they mean by it, what they see, why they're pursuing it now, and really what's wrong? I think a lot of Christians would say, well, what's wrong with trying to level the playing field, so to speak? You're trying to help those who are oppressed or those who lack, quote unquote, privilege.

Yeah, that's a loaded question from every angle. The social justice issue isn't new. Really, early 20th century, liberal Protestants, Rauschenbusch going back to the 1920s. So the concept itself isn't new that the gospel, rather than being reconciliation between God and man, it's more about doing good unto people so that people can flourish. And the Christian faith really boils down to that, which incidentally, that's not a religion of grace.

That's a religion of works. So it seems to have caught on because we do see in life disparities. Now, here's the question, and I'm not getting into anybody's particulars. I'm not getting into skin color.

I'm not getting into racial, sexual, any of that. But observing the world through a biblical filter, is God OK with disparities? And the answer is, yeah, he is. You're smarter than I. You play tennis better than I. Is God OK with that?

And the answer is, yeah, he gave you different skills than he's given me. Some people are born in this zip code, others in that. Some are born to two parents.

Some are born to one in the home. And God seems to be OK with people being born into different socioeconomic structures with different giftings and skills. It doesn't need to be a level playing field that we all have the same. Now, should there be the abilities or the avenues for everybody to succeed? Absolutely. I think that's Christian. But I think we need to be careful. Everybody doesn't need to be arriving at the same place.

And to take your gifts, let's just say, I'm a mediocre tennis player. So somehow, David, you've got to give me some of your skills so that we can be level. The Bible has a name for that, and it's called stealing. And whether it's done by the government or an individual with a gun, it's still stealing. So I think the whole social justice idea motivated rightly that we see people in trouble and we want to help those people. If a Christian doesn't, something is seriously wrong.

The question is, how do we go about doing that? And I think the Bible makes it very clear we don't do it through government programs or we don't do it through legislative means. Christians individually should be helping their neighbors. Local churches should be making their own decisions how they choose to engage in their community, whether it's racial issues, whether it's a food pantry, whether it's diapers for mommies who need help. They get to decide those things.

We do good forcing somebody to do good. That is not Christianity. OK, you're listening to an interview with Todd Friel today on the top issues for Christians so far in 2019. There are probably likely more of them as we continue throughout the year. Todd is the host of Wretched Television and Radio.

Wretched.org is their website. We have much more coming up with him. Hope you're enjoying and gaining from this interview. I'm David Wheaton. You're listening to the Christian worldview radio program.

And we're back after this. You're invited to the Christian worldview golf and dinner event on Monday, September 16th at Woodhill Country Club in Wiesena, Minnesota. Golf registration includes 18 holes with cart on one of the best courses in the state, along with lunch and dinner.

Bring your own foursome or we can fit you into a group. Whole sponsorships are also available. Dinner event only registration includes a meet and greet on the lawn, a wonderful meal, a message by host David Wheaton and a live interview with special guest Darrell Harrison. The fellowship content and setting combined to make this a memorable event in support of the Christian worldview radio program. We hope you can come again. The Christian worldview golf and dinner event is on Monday, September 16th at Woodhill in Wiesena.

Registration deadline is Tuesday, September 3rd. For details and registration, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit theChristianworldview.org. 1-888-646-2233 or theChristianworldview.org. The mission of the Christian worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news that all people can be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

For when Christians have a stronger faith and when unbelievers come to saving faith, lives and families and churches, even communities, are changed for the glory of God. The Christian worldview is a listener supported ministry. You can help us in our mission to impact hearts and minds by making a donation of any amount or becoming a monthly partner.

All donations are tax deductible. You can give online at theChristianworldview.org or by calling us toll free 1-888-646-2233. When you give, we'd like to thank you by sending you a current resource.

Monthly partners can choose to receive resources throughout the year. Call 1-888-646-2233 or go to theChristianworldview.org. Thank you for your support. Welcome back to the Christian worldview radio program. Our website is theChristianworldview.org.

Lots of resources and past programs and current offers and sign up for our weekly email. All that to do, get our short takes at our website theChristianworldview.org. Our guest today is Todd Friel, the host of wretched television and radio programs. And we're talking about top issues he's been covering on his own programs this year for Christians in 2019.

Let's get straight back to the interview with Todd Friel. Why so often to those who are very adamant about social justice? Why is the gospel so often not a part of that outreach? There's a lot of things that aren't a part of it because the current manifestation of social justice, it's based on, I think, some really bad ideologies, critical race theory, intersectionality, liberation theology. These are all ideas that conservatives have denounced for a long time. Somehow they've snuck their way into conservative circles, as they always do. And they've made some inroads. I would like to say this, though, about the social justice issue.

And personally, this is the biggie right now. We need to deal with this issue pretty fast amongst Bible-believing Christians, because I fear the divide is already happening, and some of it is necessary, some of it is not. If you will, let's say on the right side, just the conservative side, if you will, all the way to the right side on the social justice issue, when it comes to racial issues and reconciliation issues, you've got white supremacists, you've got the KKK.

That's like the radical, winged-ing way right. Way over on the left side, for the social justice folks, you've got cultural Marxists, or just flat-out Marxists. Okay, we agree.

Those are both bad. But I think that there are shades on the way to, let's just call it a dividing line. There are good men that right now are on the other side of the social justice issue than some of us who are conservative on the social justice issue that are being labeled as heretics, apostate.

And a year ago they weren't, and they haven't changed their position at all. There are some people who have some sympathies with some social justice issues. They see, for instance, systemic racism. Okay, is that heresy, if you disagree with that? I mean, really, is that heretical?

But are they accurate about that, you think? You know what, that wouldn't even be my point at this moment. My concern is that there are true brothers on both sides of this issue in varying shades who still should be able to have fellowship, but there is a divide. This is somehow being turned into, this is an issue of orthodoxy. Now, I've already said, you remember the KKK, you got big problems.

You're a cultural Marxist, you got big problems, but there are shades of it on the way to the center of this, and I'm by no means a moderate on most things. But there are men that we used to do conferences with that we no longer do. Did they suddenly change on justification? No, they have a different take on it. Now, time will reveal if there's more to it, but until that happens, we better be careful how much dividing we're doing because it could turn into a circular firing squad. Yeah, I agree with you that time will reveal because that has a way of just revealing where these things end up and where someone who stands on one side of the issue ends up.

And there's just a ton of confusion right now, and so I would just still encourage all of us, let's just keep our powder dry on some of these things. I liken this onto the baptismal issue. I can imagine years ago when Presbyterians and believers, baptism folks, were looking at each other, there was maybe some separating going on.

Well, somehow we learned to get Presbyterians and Baptists somehow figured out, this isn't heresy, I disagree with you on the whole pedo-baptism thing, but we still love each other. We better find where that is on this issue. And if there are people who are outside of that, they can be labeled. But let's not divide over non-essential social justice issues. Yeah, it's an important issue, I think, to understand not only what's going on with the church with it, but this is the driving issue, I think, politically within the country as well, too.

This is what the left bases all their advocacy for, the programs and policies they try to implement, it's all in terms of social justice. And it drives me bonkers because we Christians, we actually have the answers to the problems. It's been said a million times, but it's true a million times. What separates us? We're not in Christ. So Galatians tells us that in Christ there is no rich, no poor, no slave, no free, if you will, no black, no white, no yellow, no red. We've got a new identity.

I'm not a political party, I'm not even, if you will, a citizen of a particular, I'm a citizen of the kingdom of God. That's my identity, and that's your identity, and we're in this together. That's the great reconciler.

Yes, it is. But then there's more things that we could talk about. There's some huge issues, and I do believe that Christians have a lot to say, but we're not even getting out of the starting blocks. And that's what's dividing our country, all the identity groups, the division of people that's not going to lead to unity in this country, unfortunately. Again, Todd Friel with us today on the Christian Royal View Radio program talking about some of the most important issues that he's been discussing on his own program called Wretched. It's both a television program and a radio program.

You can find out more about it and get connected with it by going to their website, Wretched.org. Let's move on to a cultural issue as we descend down the chain here to the whole transgender movement. You mentioned using the preferred pronoun of transgender people as being a topic that you think is going to reach critical mass for Christians in this country.

I've often thought of this. I think in Canada there's even laws at this point that you have to call people by their preferred pronoun or else there's legal action against you. Should a Christian call someone by their preferred pronoun even though you know that's a lie, that a man who was born a man really can't be a woman, so to call that man a her, aren't you really lying to that person? I would start with either Romans 14 or 1 Corinthians 8 through 10 and suggest that this subject falls underneath the theological umbrella of disputable dispensations, adiaphora, if you will. These are the gray areas of the Christian faith that two different Christians can have different opinions on this, and we'd better be really, really slow to call the other one a sinner. Here's a question. On its fundamental level, is it a sin to call somebody by the wrong pronoun?

We've got to answer that question because it is just a matter of time. This is what thrust Jordan Peterson into the spotlight. He was the one in Canada who said, hey, hold it, you can't tell me as a government to use this pronoun. That's forcing speech. That's not even taking freedom of speech. You're telling me what to say. And we're seeing this with corporations increasingly.

We hear from a lot of folks saying, yikes, we're doing this training, and school teachers, for instance, will have students. And so I see two sides of it, and I think both have really valid arguments, and my encouragement would be whichever side of the argument you're on, to remember this concept called adiaphora and that there's mittledinga, there's things that maybe we just see a little bit differently here. On one side, you've got the side that you rightly represented. The dude is a guy, not a girl. I can't call him a girl. That's contributing to his delusion. Yeah, why are you affirming that? I get that. And I understand that, and that's how I will confess to you, that was like I was 100 percent in that camp initially. Come on, Bruce.

I remember watching you in the Olympics. You're not Caitlin. Okay, so there's some time, and just pondering it, maybe this is wrong, but we need to ask, what's going on in somebody's brain who is transgender? They're a boy. They think they're a girl. Well, the DSM, the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, used to say they had a mental disorder.

You could, Corporal Klinger tried to get kicked out of the Army by dressing up like a woman, because we looked at that and said, something's wrong, and they need some help. They don't need affirmation. They need help. Mental illness, which we all have, because of the noetic effect of the fall, our brains all have got different manifestations of problems, but we all have mental illness. These people can go to work. These people can function and have a mortgage, but that doesn't mean that they don't have some sort of mental issue going on.

So I imagine it like this. If I were working in some sort of facility with people who struggle with mental and emotional issues, and a guy said, don't call me Bob, I'm George the Giraffe, would I call him George the Giraffe? I mean, clearly, something's wrong, and perhaps he gets agitated when I call him by his given name, Bob. He thinks he's George the Giraffe. Am I encouraging him to continue thinking he's George the Giraffe, or am I keeping it calm so that I can have a relationship to help him understand you're Bob and not a long-necked animal? And I think that that is a fair argument. Is it okay for me to use his preferred pronoun or name in an effort to get him help? I think that that can be pretty compelling, too. So as we all work through this together, you will have to decide this, because it is coming.

I would probably be willing to call someone by their chosen name because you choose your name, but your gender is assigned to you, so I probably would not call someone by their, I'd just call them by their name over and over again, but try to avoid using the pronoun. I am telling David again to sit down. Yes, exactly, right.

That's how I see this one. But anyway, Todd Friel with us today on the Christian Real View. The final topic is we've gone from celebrities who lose their faith to assurance of salvation to a gospel that makes Jesus desirable rather than just a way to live, to social justice, to pronouns for transgender people.

This is quite a list. Yeah. Number six is persecution, because I can see how number five, if you don't use the correct pronoun for transgender people that they prefer, that could lead to persecution of you.

The number one persecuted demographic in the world is, drum roll, Christians. Right. Question. Okay, Todd Friel will answer the question he's about to propose here after this final break of the day here on the Christian Real View radio program.

I was thinking as he was answering the question about, should we call people by the pronoun they have chosen, a man who thinks he is now a woman, should we go along with that and call him her, thinking, what a point we've arrived to in our society where we even have to discuss that question. Really, that shows you how far we've come and how much work we have to do to make the gospel clear and make biblical teaching clear. Coming back more after this with Todd Friel on the Christian Real View. followed by a Q&A moderated by host David Wheaton.

No cost, no registration, just come. The event will also be live streamed on the Christian Real View Facebook page. For more information, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianrealview.org. The Christian Real View speaker series with Darrell Harrison, Sunday, September 15th at 7 p.m. at Grace Church Eden Prairie.

Call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianrealview.org. The prosperity gospel is a prominent false gospel that God offers health, wealth, and prosperity if you just have faith and give money. Costi Hinn grew up on the inside of the prosperity gospel movement.

His uncle is world-renowned prosperity preacher Benny Hinn. Costi saw it all, the manipulation, staged healings, luxuriant lifestyles, and perversion of scripture before God opened Costi's eyes to understand sound doctrine and believe in the true gospel. Now a pastor, Costi has written an important book entitled God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel which chronicles his own experience and gracefully points the reader to the truth of scripture. For a limited time, you can order this 224-page softcover book for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

Normal retail is $17.99 without shipping. To order, call 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianrealview.org. Okay, final segment of the day here on the Christian Real View radio program. Just a reminder that our guest today, Todd Freeh, will be preaching tomorrow here in the Twin Cities at Faith Bible Church at the University of Northwestern St. Paul at 9.30 a.m. And today on the program, we're talking about the top issues for Christians that Todd has been covering this year on his own programs on wretched radio and television.

And let's get back to the final segment and we'll have a few follow-up comments afterwards. If you don't use the correct pronoun for transgender people that they prefer, that could lead to persecution of you. The number one persecuted demographic in the world is, drum roll, Christians. Right. Question, is there any difference in the DNA of, say, a North Korean who is at this moment torturing one of our Christian brothers or sisters in a labor camp in North Korea than any politician in America?

No. In China, they'll kill Christians. We've got Christian brothers and sisters who are getting ripped out of their churches and homes and put into labor camps and they're working them to death. Is there anything about human nature in Western folk that is going to keep them from potentially doing that? And the answer is there's no fundamental difference. So to say that it's just not possible here is to deny the basics of depraved humanity.

It is possible here. The question that we should ask, though, is if it comes and the handwriting appears to be on the wall, how do we act? Because this is a table turner for Christians in this country.

How do we act? And thankfully, God has given us a book called 1 Peter and I think he lays out everything we need to know about persecution and it is radical. The theme of the book is persecution. And so he starts out by preaching the gospel.

That's a tell. And then he starts to tell people who are taking far more of a beating than you and I are currently facing. You might not get a job because you're a Christian.

You might have a crabby neighbor because you're a Christian. These people were being boiled in oil for being a Christian. He tells them to love one another. He tells them to be holy. He tells them to submit to a horrible government.

He tells the husband to submit to the wife, the wife to submit to the husband, the church to submit to the pastor. And I think the central verse in all of that is 1 Peter 3.15. When you're being persecuted, you are going to respond in such a way that it is going to force people to go, what's the deal with you?

Tell me about the hope that lies within you. Peter sees persecution as an evangelistic opportunity that we are to be a holy, set-apart, loving people that the world looks at and goes, I don't know what they got, but I'm interested in that. That is how we're to respond to persecution. And I might suggest we start getting that thought blasted into our brains because it sure does appear to be coming.

I agree with you. And so I would want to just follow up with one question, one more question from our own list of topics we've done recently on the Christian worldview was last week's topic. We talked about the situation in Hong Kong and the fact that this freedom-loving people in Hong Kong who were under a British colony for over 100 years and then they got handed back to Communist China in 1997 and now China is exerting a grip on them and violating their rights.

They thought they were guaranteed at least until 1947. People are protesting in the streets. Against this government, this tyrannical government. We started to talk about is there any scenario where Christians, especially in America, as you see this leftward turn and the persecution that's taking place, if our government oversteps the bounds of our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, even let's say using the example of the Revolutionary War back in the day, some people say that was justified, some people say it wasn't justified. What do you say about Christians resisting government to the poison of taking up arms if they're violating our own Constitution and maybe give some context on that with regard to the American Revolution because some pastors were in favor of it and some pastors weren't? First of all, I have a mandate from God to protect my wife and children.

I'm going to do that. So whatever means that that takes to keep my kids from being hurt, my wife from being hurt, I can protect them regardless of the entity. Now having said that, you talk about Hong Kong, there's a pastor there. I wish I could remember his name. This happened a number of months ago. You read the story. Pretty big church there, a Protestant church, and he was preaching to his congregation because the signs were there.

They're starting to post signs. In China, if you tattle on a Christian, you get points because they've got that control system over there and you get points and you move up in the culture. What a recipe for terror that is. And this fellow was preaching to his congregation. He asked the question, who is bigger, our government or King Jesus? Is our government really going to stop the forward process of the Gospel? Is the Chinese government going to be the first entity to somehow overcome the promise of Jesus that even the gates of hell will not prevail against the building of his church? This government is not going to thwart the work of King Jesus.

We're citizens of a different country. I think every Christian that we need to work through this because we have been able to live in an unprecedented time of kindness from the government to Christians. If that changes, we need to start remembering our mandate is to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that even our enemies whom we are charged to love will ask us about the hope that lies within us.

They will get saved and they will glorify God too. That's our mandate. So we can have debates and people are. By the way, Greg Frazier, he wrote a great book on this subject recently about the Revolutionary War, read it, the compelling stuff. I would simply state, read the Bible. What are our marching orders? And I think Jesus made it very, very clear. Go and make disciples, preach the Gospel. He's building his church. Remember what he said, my kingdom is not of this world. He's building his own spiritual empire. And the good news is the best form of government there is is a theocracy. And when King Jesus returns, all of these governments will be gone and he's going to rule and reign.

And that is the kingdom that we should be most interested in. Thank you for that perspective, Todd. Dodged your question, didn't I? Yeah, so you're against the American Revolution. You wish you were still British. That's my follow up question, but I won't make you answer it.

I don't even like tea. All right, Todd, thank you so much for coming on the Christian worldview and all you do to exalt God and his word and the Gospel on your radio program and television program. Grateful for you.

Yeah, same here, Todd. All of God's best and grace to you. OK, you've been listening to an interview with Todd Friel today, the host of Wretched Television and Radio and their website, again, is Wretched.org to get connected with their ministry. They put out a lot of great resources and content, great on evangelism and many other topics.

And I hope you gain from the various issues we talked about today on the program. You can, of course, hear the program again if you missed any of it by going to our website, thechristianworldview.org. You can get it for free via podcast.

If you have an Apple phone, you go to iTunes. If you have a Google-based phone, you go to Google Play and just subscribe and search for The Christian Real View and you can get it there. And just one more reminder that we're coming up very quickly on our mid-September events. The Christian Real View Speaker Series event is on Sunday, September 15th. That's at 7 p.m. at Grace Church Eden Prairie in Minnesota here.

The topic is social justice. The speaker is Daryl Harrison, and we're very much looking forward to this event. No cost, no registration, music by higher call quartet, a Q&A after the message. And you can find out more at our website, thechristianworldview.org. Thank you again for joining us today on The Christian Real View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly. And remember that there's one thing we can always trust in and count on in our changing and challenging world. Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Have a great weekend, everyone. at 1-888-646-2233. The Christian World View is a weekly one-hour radio program that is furnished by the Overcomer Foundation and is supported by listeners and sponsors. Request one of our current resources with your donation of any amount. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call us toll-free at 1-888-646-2233 or write to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian World View. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.