Will You and Your Children Stand Firm? Part 2

Will you and your children stand firm? That is a topic we'll discuss today in part two of our interview with Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis, right here on the Christian worldview radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org.

Well, thanks for joining us today on the program. Now, last week in part one of our interview with Ken Ham, we discussed how a large segment of the American populace has become aggressive in its opposition to God and His Word. And this necessitates that Christ's followers stand firm on biblical truth, not capitulate, and train up our children and grandchildren to do the same. Now, Ken Ham recently wrote a book on this subject titled Will They Stand?, which includes much personal content on who and what shaped him to have such a high view of God and His Word.

The book right now is our featured resource for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview, and we'll tell you how you can get that today during the program. Now, after the interview with Ken, we're going to play a portion of a recent sermon by Pastor John MacArthur that is very similar to what Ken Ham describes in our conversation today about our nation's descent into sin, and yet at the same time, the believer's hope in the midst of it. And finally, to close the program, we're going to touch on whether the government or private businesses, your employer, can force you to take the COVID-19 vaccine. This question is coming up more and more now as we hear about talk of vaccine passports or needing to take the vaccine to be able to be part of a company or travel and that kind of thing.

So be sure to hear the answer to this question so you can be informed as to make the right decision. But before we get to all that, let's get back to the second part of the interview with Ken Ham, who again is the founder and president of Answers in Genesis, and also the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. Ken, as you talk about your father, and again, as I mentioned earlier, his book has a very personal look at your background and the influences that shaped your life. You say on October 22, 1928, a child came into the world on a little-known island. I think it was a Papua New Guinea or a northern tip. Thursday Island. What was it called? Thursday Island.

Thursday Island, yes. His birth going unnoticed by all except a few. It was an unremarkable entrance into human existence in an unremarkable location, far from the cities and headlines that concern the rest of the world at that time. The second of two children your dad was, the child grew through humble means and hard work in a land that was raw and full of potential. You say, when he was 16, his father died with no earthly father. To guide him into adulthood, he turned to his heavenly father for direction, stability, and a model after which to shape his life. In the words of the Bible, he found all he needed. The book fed both his passion for learning and his heart for his Lord and Creator. In the hospital just before his father passed into glory in 1995, my late brother Robert asked him a question, Dad, why did you love God's Word so much? Your dad's answer, Ken, after my earthly father died, I then turned to the words of my heavenly father and read them over and over again. Dad saturated himself in the Word of God. I'd like you to talk about, because so much of this book is personal in nature, can talk about the influence of your parents, maybe specifically your father. The Ministry of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, the Ark Encounter that impacts tens of millions of people a year is really a legacy of parents who taught their children to stand on God's Word and to defend the Christian faith and to boldly stand and never knowingly compromise God's Word.

And as I grew up, just the influences of my parents, you know, my father was a teacher and he was a head teacher, and so he was transferred every three years. He was so good at what he did that he was promoted every three years, but we traveled around the state of Queensland, transferred little country towns as he got bigger and bigger schools, and some places went to, there were no Sunday schools, they would start Sunday schools. They would bring in evangelists so that they could reach young people with the gospel, and some of these places only had one or two churches, and often the pastors were impacted by the liberal theology that was then permeating the seminaries, and so they would even preach to undermine miracles, you know, a little boy took at his loaves and fishes, somebody else, so that set an example for others to do the same, you know, that sort of thing. And my father would go and challenge the pastors and open up the Bible and say, but here's what God's Word said, and my father realized that liberal theology could be used to cause us to doubt God's Word, and so he started studying what the liberal theologians were teaching to give us answers so that we wouldn't be led astray, and I realized that what he was doing, he never used the word, was teaching apologetics, teaching a defense of the faith, and to make sure we were prepared for the world we were growing up in, that things wouldn't be taught that would cause us to doubt and not believe God's Word, and so that's the environment I grew up in, and you know, like my father would even teach us things like, you know, when you look at study Bibles, you know, like the Schofield study Bible, in the notes it's all about the gap theory, for instance, in Genesis, he always would say, remember the notes are not inspired like the text, and the text should always be the commentary on the notes, I mean, he was always exalting God's Word, and he would teach us things like, you know, just because something looks like it contradicts the Bible doesn't mean that it does, what you need to do is to go to God's Word, make sure you're taking it the right way, like in Genesis, the grammatical historical interpretive method, it's written as history, it's history, make sure that you're letting God speak to you, you're not trying to impose your ideas on the Bible, that's one thing he was adamant about, you know, you've got to not impose your ideas on God's Word, let God's Word in the context and the literature that was written, let it speak to you, and then if there's still a contradiction, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with the Bible, it means man who doesn't know everything, a man who knows nothing compared to God has a wrong interpretation out here, we have to wait for answers, I mean, all that had an incredible impact on my life, which is why I realized, you know, as we talk about all these issues, it just seems so natural to me that, hey, you know, the Bible is not just a book of moral things, spiritual things, relationships, it's a book of history, and Genesis 1 to 11, as my father taught too, is the foundation for the rest of the Bible, when you start there, you build a worldview, so you know what you believe, why you believe, what you do, you understand those who don't start from God's Word have a whole different worldview, I understand the foundational nature of the problem, it just seems so many Christians don't realize that, because I think we haven't been taught that the Bible is the foundation for our worldview, it's sort of, you sort of, you add Christianity to a secular worldview, you know, and that's really what's happened in a lot of our churches, and to me it's just so natural to think in terms of building a house, you start with the foundation, you build the walls and the roof, and that to me is, you know, how you think about the gospel, our doctrines, and what we believe, the way we think, you start from God's Word, start with Genesis 1 to 11, build the walls and the roof, so, you know, marriage is based in Genesis, sin, Genesis, death, Genesis, why we wear clothes, Genesis, why Jesus died in the cross, Genesis, why we need the last Adam, see I keep harping on this, but Genesis 1 to 11 is the foundation for everything, and our churches, a lot of them have ignored that or compromised it, and now we're seeing those younger generations walk away from the church and have a secular worldview. If you compromise the first 11 chapters of the Bible, if you misinterpret it, what's to keep you from misinterpreting the rest of the Bible, especially when it comes to the gospel and everything else.

Ken Ham with us today here on The Christian Worldview, the author of a great new book which we're carrying, it's our new current offer, Will They Stand, you can get it for a donation of any amount, you can just get in contact with us the usual way through our website, thechristianworldview.org, or through calling us at our toll-free number, 1-888-646-2233. Ken, just another short paragraph from your book on page 98, you talk about the challenge before us, we are to raise godly seed by accepting our responsibilities as parents, and to see our children conform to the image of Christ, diligently training them in truth, using the rod with love, remembering God's warnings and blessings promised, so that our children will not learn the ways of the heathen, but will be able to distinguish good from evil, be equipped to stand against the giants that oppose Christianity, and so influence the world for Christ. Now I think most professing Christians would agree with that, we're to raise our children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord, we want God the offspring and so forth, but how that is done, that is actually very hard to do, that takes a very intentional effort, but it's not just trying to teach them things, mustn't it first be internalized by parents first?

In other words, must they not first be truly saved and sound in their own biblical worldview, and passionate or an intentional about sharing it with others, starting with their own children? Oh, you're so right David, in fact one of the things I do when I'm speaking on these sorts of topics, I'll often ask the audience, you know, look, today there's particular attacks on the Word of God, and I want to ask you, could you answer these sorts of questions, because these are the sorts of questions we get today, hasn't science disproved the Bible, where'd the Bible come from, or who wrote the Bible, what do you mean it's the inspired Word of God? Well, help me understand, what does it mean to truly be a Christian, and well, wait a minute, what about evolution and millions of years, and we could go on and ask lots and lots of questions, and I find for a lot of people that are Christians growing up in the church all their life, they can't answer those basic questions, and then I have a challenge for them, if you can't answer those questions, does that mean your children can't? And if you have not taught your children how to defend the faith and prepared them for the world we're living in, that's attacking God's Word, listen, the Bible makes it clear, men love darkness rather than light, there's more in the broad way than the narrow way, and you've got to remember something, the narrow way is not separate to the broad way, the broad way is the world, we live in the world, the narrow way is within the world going in the opposite direction, and it's so easy for the world to drag your kids in the other way, I mean, for a lot of people they've handed their kids over to the public schools for how many hours a day to train them, and maybe to church once a week, but what do parents do? What does God say is your role as a father, your role as a mother?

I mean, who is to be the spiritual head of the house? What does God say about these things? I find a lot of Christians don't even know how to answer those questions, let alone know how to teach and raise up generations, I've had parents come to me after I've spoken and say, well, my parents never taught us this, and I don't even know how to do it, I don't really know how to teach my children, I just hope the church can do it somehow, they haven't been taught these ways, and there is another problem with the church, have our churches been teaching the men how to be fathers and husbands and the women how to be mothers and wives and helping to instruct them, because that's a role of the church is the edification of believers, have we really been doing that to help them to be able to raise up godly offspring? And so, you know, that's one of the things I say to parents, look, you've got to stand back and say, God's given us a warning, there's going to be a tack on the Word of God, if he's entrusted children to you, they're inherited from the Lord, a gift from the Lord, then you need to be saying, what do I need to be doing to raise up these children to be able to live in this culture we see around us today?

I mean, have a look at it, collapsing before our very eyes, the majority of kids from church who have left the church and become very post-Christian, what does the Bible tell me about how I should be raising up my kids, and what do I need to be equipped with, and for many parents, they need to be equipped themselves, and in fact, just one last little thing here, we have a Sunday School curriculum, which we've turned into a home Bible curriculum as well, called Answers Bible curriculum, it's answers, it's apologetics, biblical authority, chronological, Christian worldview, doctrine, it's a four-year curriculum, and it's for all ages, and I've found many adults have said to me, as we've been doing that now, and our Sunday Schools are doing it at home, we're finding we are learning stuff we never knew about, because we haven't been equipped, and this is really equipping us, so there's a lot of biblical illiteracy out there, unfortunately, it's a major problem. The Christian worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. The original stalwart souls who created a colony in the howling New England winter, just so they can worship according to the dictates of conscience, had far more influence on world history than they could have ever imagined. You see the seeds of liberty, both religious liberty and civil liberty, and the idea of self-government and rule from within.

All these are within that body of pilgrims. The proceeding is from The Pilgrims, a 57-minute documentary of the inspiring story and faith of these Christians who greatly impacted our nation. You can order the DVD for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.

That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianworldview.org. David Wheaton here, volunteer host of the Christian worldview radio program. Listeners are often surprised to learn that we as a ministry pay for airtime on the radio station, website, or app on which you hear the program. The primary way this expense is recouped is through listeners like you donating to the ministry or becoming a monthly partner.

Our aim is to have each broadcast outlet fully supported by the listeners to that outlet. If you are a regular listener, we will be grateful if you made a donation or became a monthly partner of any amount. To do so, go to thechristianworldview.org and click on donate. You can also call 1-888-646-2233. That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianworldview.org.

And be sure to specify in which station, website, or app you listen as that helps us decide whether to continue on a given outlet. Thank you for your support. Welcome back to the Christian worldview. Be sure to visit our website, thechristianworldview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print newsletter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Now, back to today's program with host, David Wheaton.

And you write about what you just mentioned, the roles and responsibilities of dads and also moms. There's chapters on that in your book, Will They Stand? Excellent book. And our guest is Ken Ham, the founder and president of Answers in Genesis. And just a reminder, Will They Stand is our new current offer here at the Christian worldview.

It's a 312-page hardcover that retails for $19.99. And for a limited time, you can get it for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. Just go to our website, thechristianworldview.org, or give us a call toll free, 1-888-646-2233.

Or you can write to us as well, box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. A couple more questions, but I want to touch on one very important question. It's the importance of the Father being the spiritual leader in a home. We talked earlier just about the racial problems and unrest, and we know the dire consequences of fatherlessness in homes, but also in homes where there's intact homes, when there's a Father who doesn't lead spiritually. There's very negative consequences for that as well, too.

You write on page 112 of your book, Will They Stand? One of the greatest travesties in our society today is that many fathers are not transmitting to the next generation the knowledge of God and His commands from the Word. What is even sadder is that most fathers don't even seem to know how to do this.

You just mentioned this in your last answer. They don't know what it means to be the spiritual head of the house. It appears that many of the fathers of the past did not transmit this knowledge to the present generation. How do you see this issue of dads' fathers not spiritually leading, manifesting itself, not in broader society?

We know there's so much fatherlessness and the horrific consequences of that, but within the Christian Church, where do you see this flipping of authority and abrogating of responsibility by the Father to be the spiritual leader, and how does that need to change? If you go back to Genesis 3, as part of a consequence of sin, God says to the woman that you'll have an increase in pain in childbirth, and we know physically she does, and also emotionally also in childbirth, you know, trying to bring up children as well. But then it says this, and your desire shall be to your husband and he shall rule over you.

Now that's not a model for marriage. This is talking about as a result of sin, what's going to happen. Well, your desire shall be to your husband and he shall rule over you. Well, when we think about what happened with Cain, God warned Cain that sin desires you to rule over you. It's going to get the better of you, and it did, and he killed Abel.

It's crouching at the door wanting to take you over. And so it's the same sense here, saying, men, here's what's going to happen. Because of sin, then sin wants to take over your life and you will rule over the woman. In other words, you will lord it despotically over the woman. You will not treat her as you should, and the woman will try to take over the authority of the man.

Your desire shall be to your husband. And so that instead of him being the head of the home, women will try to take that over. And we see that particularly exhibited in the feminist movement. And as a result of this, many haven't been warned about, hey, you know, what does the Bible say? You ought to be the spiritual head of your family, the priest to your wife and the priest to your family.

But sin is going to want to overtake you so that you give up that role and you give it up to somebody else. And unfortunately, that's what's happened in so many instances. And as a result, we're seeing consequences in families. For instance, there's definitely a correlation, I've seen some work done on this, between not having a spiritual head of the, the father's being the spiritual head of the house, and even incidences of, you know, homosexual behavior and so on in boys in particular. We've also seen as a result of this, you know, we see this in our own ministry, we have a lot of lovely young, young single ladies who can't find godly men. There is a lack of godly men out there in our churches, and they haven't themselves been trained to be those godly spiritual leaders, unfortunately. And I've had pastors all across the nation tell me that that's an incredible issue. And so we're going to see those sorts of consequences in our children, and we're going to see them exit from the church, which is what we've seen.

There's been incredible exodus from the church of those younger generations. Final question for you, Ken, and thank you for coming on the program today. You know, I'm looking at the the Ark encounter, the Ark itself, a life-size replica of Noah's Ark behind your shoulder there at the the Ark encounter in northern Kentucky. And on that Ark, there was one door, one door to be saved, to come in for Noah and his family. And that was a type of how there's one door to salvation that God has provided us through the door of Jesus Christ.

And I wonder if we conclude today, this interview, this conversation, that you could explain how that door represents the saving gospel of Christ and how to enter that door to being reconciled with God and how that actually leads to the byproduct of then developing a biblical worldview. Well, you know, if you go back to Genesis, notice I always say, go back to Genesis, right? Genesis is the foundation for everything. When you go back to Genesis, when man sinned, what did God do? Well, there was the judgment of death.

If you rebel, if you disobey, you will surely die. But then God killed animals and gave coats to Adam and Eve, coats of skins. It was the first blood sacrifice occurring for their sin, a picture of what was to come in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He was pointing to the Messiah who would come, who would die for our sin. And Genesis 3.15 was also a promise of the Savior there in Genesis.

In other words, in judgment, when God judges, he also brings salvation. And if you think about it, at the time of the flood, God had warned people and they rebelled against him. And so what did God do? He judged with a flood, but he provided a means of salvation. He told Noah to build an ark, and only those who went through the door of the ark were saved. It's really a picture of Jesus.

It's a picture of the Messiah. When God's Son stepped into history to be one of us, and think about it, a man brought sin and death into the world. So a man would have to pay the penalty for sin and death.

We're all descendants of Adam and Eve. The Bible says all have sinned. So how can one of us pay the penalty for sin? You see, Scripture says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins because the life of the flesh is in the blood.

Blood represents life. And so there has to be the giving of life to pay the penalty for sin. Now, the shedding of animals' blood over and over and over again didn't take away our sin. It was pointing to the one who would take away our sin. So a man brought sin and death into the world. A man would have to pay the penalty for sin, but it can't be one of us because we're all sinners, but it has to be because we're all human beings going back to Adam.

So God steps into history to be one of us, to be our relative, to be of the human family, to be the perfect man, the God-man, to then die on a cross because death was a penalty for sin, to be raised from the dead, conquers death, and offers a free gift of salvation. Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he will be saved. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so Noah's Ark is a beautiful picture of salvation. As Noah and his family went through the door to the ark, we need to go through the door to the ark. And on the inside of the ark, on the second deck, it's my favorite photo spot, and that is the big door, the one door, and we have a cross illuminated on that door.

And people gather at the bottom of that door and have their photographs taken as families to remind their family, as Noah went through that door, we need to go through that door. That's the most important thing in the entire universe. You know, nothing else matters.

No material things matters. What matters is your eternity. And that's what matters about your children, their eternity, their beings are going to live forever. Ken, thank you so much for explaining the good news of Jesus Christ here, saving really the best for last, and explaining how anyone listening today who has never repented of their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ, what He did on the cross on their behalf. He paid God's required penalty for your sin on the cross, and how they can be forgiven and saved as a result of putting faith in what God did for you through Jesus Christ.

Do that today. And Ken, thank you for the great model and just strong stand that you and Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter provide for so many people around the world. We would just highly encourage listeners to get in contact with your ministry, be influenced by it, visit the Creation Museum, the Ark Encounter, and they can do that by going to answersingenesis.org. Ken, thank you for coming on the program today. All of God's best and grace to you. Thanks, David.

That was Ken Ham, everyone. And if you missed any of that interview, you can always go to our website, thechristianworldview.org to hear it again. You can also, when you're there, be sure to order his brand new book, Will They Stand? Parenting Kids to Face the Giants. This is a 312-page hardcover book that retails for $19.99, and we're offering it for a limited time for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

So be sure to take advantage of that. You can order it the usual ways on our website, thechristianworldview.org, by phoning us toll free, 1-888-646-2233, or by writing to us at Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. I was just thinking about Ken's book, Will They Stand? Parenting Kids to Face the Giants, what he mentioned earlier in that biblical conviction can't just be relayed to children and grandchildren.

It must first be lived out and integrated into the life of adults. And so this book would be just excellent to get to really learn what shaped Ken and the kinds of things that will help you to stand firm on Christ and His Word in this increasingly hostile world. Now, in light of this, I mentioned earlier today that we were going to hear a soundbite, a portion of a sermon, from Pastor John MacArthur that he gave recently, and I think it ties in so well with the topic today, Will You and Your Children Stand Firm? I often listen to Pastor John MacArthur. I know I reference him on the program and play audio of him frequently, and I often watch his church service. He's out in California. When we return from our own church here in Minnesota, it's online, you can watch it by going to GraceChurch.org.

I think it's also on their Facebook page as well, but it airs at 1230 p.m. Central Time every Sunday, and so this would be a great thing to do. You get home from church, have some lunch, sit down, and watch the church service from—usually it's John MacArthur preaching. And the reason that I recommend it so highly is that he's just so sound biblically and so strong. He just doesn't capitulate. And yet, at the same time, he's just not a screamer or a rancher at all. He speaks of God's grace.

He's inviting. And to come to saving faith and to follow God and to talk about the believer's hope for the future, he just walks that necessary balance beam well—that you just can't be all about truth and you can't just be all about grace. You really need to be like Christ, full of grace and truth.

And this is what is called for today, and really at all times. Someone who speaks, preachers who speak with grace and truth. I've noticed at the beginning of his sermons recently, as his church has been under, I guess what you could say, assault from the local governing authorities in California, the City of Los Angeles, and more broadly, probably the state, there's been lawsuits and fines against them for meeting in person during the COVID lockdowns in California, which I believe now have been lifted for places of worship.

So it'll be interesting to see how those court cases turn out. But John MacArthur and his church made a very strong stance about the call, the mandate from Scripture to meet in person. And I've just noticed in his preaching that he has, at his advanced age, I think he's in his early 80s now, that this has almost energized him, that he senses that there is a hostility, a constriction by the governing authorities, civil authorities, against his call to lead his church. And so the beginnings often of some of his messages that he'll address current issues that are taking place in the country right now. And this recent sermon was no different, where he went into an extended period of talking about what's going on and what's happening within our country.

And so that's what I want to play you now. I want to play you this portion of a sermon, and we'll stop a few times to make some comments along the way. Here's Pastor John MacArthur in a recent sermon. It was about a dozen years ago that a popular book came out, written by Joel Osteen.

The title of the book was Your Best Life Now, and it sold about eight million copies at the time. It's been 12 years since then, and 12 rather dramatic years, particularly the more recent ones. Such a jarring, disturbing shift has taken place in the social order that we have in our country and around the world that I think few people are convinced that this is their best life right now. We are now living under dominant deception, dominant lies, hatred, crime, anger, selfishness, immorality, a pandemic wickedness that most of all hates the truth and will assault the truth every possible way it can. And that means that the Church of Jesus Christ is going to experience things that we haven't experienced in this country or even in the West ever, perhaps. I just want to jump in here for a second because we've talked about the list of things that he is observing in our country from the use of COVID-19 to really control and direct the country over to this socialist Marxist state where there's heavy-handed government mandates and lockdowns and even all the racial riots, the worldview behind that, Black Lives Matter, the Marxism there, and the lies just about all the systemic racism and so forth. There are many other issues, but just one I want to quickly touch on before we get back to more of that sermon.

A good example of this from the highest office in the land, the President of the United States, in his recent address to both houses of Congress, openly all you could say is advocates for sin in that the person who is sinning persists in it. Here's President Biden. I also hope Congress will get to my desk the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ Americans. For all transgender Americans watching at home, especially young people, who are so brave, I want you to know your president has your back. So that's President Biden, the highest civil leader in our entire country, talking about the Equality Act and the importance of passing that. That's going to codify homosexuality and transgenderism into the 1964 civil rights law. And ultimately, what that will do is it will criminalize or put Christians who want to hold to their biblical convictions at odds with the government, put them under threat of persecution, fines, jail, losing their jobs, and so forth. So this is what President Biden in the left is for in this country. Then he made a special note to talk about if you're a transgender person in this country, particularly a youth, he specified, I want you to know that this president has your back.

Just think about that for a second. He is encouraging someone to persist in sin. Instead of calling them graciously out of it, he's encouraging them to go deeper into it. What can be worse for a civil leader than to encourage or affirm people in their sinfulness? Because transgenderism, as the Bible clearly states, is a sin God designed and created us to be a specific gender, either male or female, and we should embrace that, not reject it and try to be something different than God actually made us. Because we can't actually be something different.

No matter what we do with hormones and anything else and surgeries, we are still ultimately genetically the same gender that God created us. That's just one example of what John MacArthur is referring to where the country has now come to, where the president is affirming what God clearly calls sin. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. Recent guest Cal Beissner defines economics as moral philosophy applied to marketplace relationships. So it makes sense that as our nation's judgment of what is right and wrong has moved away from biblical morality, our economic policies have gone the same wrong direction. So what is the Christian worldview on economics? Cal Beissner has written an insightful 56-page softcover booklet titled Biblical Foundations for Economics that shows how economic principles and policies need to be based on the Bible to achieve the greatest human flourishing. For a limited time, we are offering biblical foundations for economics for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview. To order, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331.

Again, the website is thechristianworldview.org. I have always considered myself a really healthy person. It was never crossing my mind that I would face any sort of large health issue. So I went to get a mammogram and the doctor walked in and immediately started tearing up.

She said, Kelsey, I've known you for years. This is really hard for me to tell you, but it is breast cancer. Because I'm a Samaritan member, I knew that I had complete freedom in regards to which providers I saw, what kind of treatment I wanted to get, and that they are so generous with cancer needs specifically that although I had a lot of other decisions to make, how I was going to pay for it and where I was going to go for treatment didn't have to be one of the things I was concerned about. And I think that's such a beautiful aspect of Samaritan that I would never want to lose. A community of Christians caring for each other with a biblical solution to health care.

Learn more at Samaritanministries.org slash TCW. Thanks for joining us on the Christian worldview. Just a reminder that today's program and past programs are archived at our website, thechristianworldview.org.

Short takes are also available and be sure to share with others. Now back to today's program with host David Wheaton. And so while we as Christians are commanded to pray for President Biden and all of our civil leaders, whether they are Christians or not, for their salvation and even for their judgment if they persist in rebelling against God, that's why as we continue with the soundbite, this is what John MacArthur's estimation is of where this is all going. The noble experiment of America to have a just and civil society based on biblical morality and firm legal control by government exercising the threat and the reality of punishment to those who violate the law is essentially over. Even the revered constitution has become irrelevant and subject to whimsical manipulation so that it no longer offers any strong barrier to the forces of evil and civil destruction. We're watching our country free fall into godless darkness, sexual perversion, gender insanity, crime of all kinds, the breakdown of law and order, family destruction, and above all the constant flood of lies and efforts to silence the truth.

Many of us feel this is the end of what we have hoped for when we hope for the best for our place in history. The final step in the demise of any society is when the truth is under assault. And you can almost tell what is true because if it's true, they cancel it. It's not hard to figure out what is true.

If it's true, they attack it. So our nation has succumbed. 81 million people voted for a president who supports abortion, lies, childhood, sexual transition, transgender, homosexuality in every form.

81 million people voted him into office. Let me just jump in again to say that if you just heard what he said and your response is, well, that's really just too negative. That's pessimistic. The pendulum was going to swing around.

Things will return. This is America after all. There's no other way to say it, but you just don't have a biblical worldview. You're not understanding history, that nations who abandon God and His word and His institutions like the nuclear family and objective morality defined in Scripture and individual liberties rather than big government humanistic control, that only leads to a loss of individual liberties and a country that becomes dominated by evil. Just look at the Old Testament. When the nation of Israel followed and honored God and the leaders did so as well, there was blessing upon the nation. But when they didn't, when they worshiped idols and when they went their own way and they sinned, there was always consequence for it.

We are no different in America today. We are not somehow special and immune from God's wrath and judgment. In fact, God is incredibly long suffering with our country and the amount of wickedness and sin that takes place in our country. He's so patient and long suffering, waiting for individuals to cry out to Him in repentance and faith.

Let's continue. Then you ask, how could a society fall so fast? What is it about human nature that allows them to be so easily victimized by corruption, wickedness, and sin? Well, the same question was asked and has been asked ever since the Second World War. The question was how could Hitler be so easily able to persuade normal German people to murder hostages, send people into forced labor camps, euthanize people, starve them to death, kill them medically, terror bomb them, let them die in camps so that as many as 31 million people were killed outright in that regime, including a million children, at least six million Jews.

How does that happen? How can a whole population turn so easily from normal life to being murderers? You could ask the same question of Russia. How could Stalin convince the Russian people to slaughter something over 20 million people?

So collectively 50 million people are slaughtered. You might think the answers are complex. Actually, they're not.

The answers to those two questions are pretty simple. All the unredeemed are of their father, the devil, who is a liar and a murderer. And unless you restrain that in human life, it will run amok. It's easy to get people to do evil. It's the way they're hardwired.

It's their bent. When the restraint of government is loosened at all, taken off or perverted, or when government no longer acts to punish evil and reward good, all kinds of sin will explode. Whether human government allows evil or commands evil, in the case of Hitler and Stalin, people will come together to do evil because they are evil. You don't see any people amassing in the streets to rush someplace to do good. It's easy to gather people to do evil.

That's their natural bent. In case you question that, let me remind you of what the Word of God says in Romans chapter 3. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good.

There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That is biblical anthropology. That's a biblical definition of humanity. People run to do evil. And unless they are restrained by conscience, by family discipline, by government authority, all hell will break loose because that's the most natural expression of the children of Satan. He is their father, and he is a liar, and he is a murderer. This is what you call a sound biblical worldview, totally opposite the way the world thinks.

A man is inherently good, and with the right education and environment, he will make good decisions for himself and his fellow man. Just look at the reality of the world. This is why we have locks on our houses. This is why we have security codes on our bank accounts.

This is why we need police. And it's quite telling that once a society throws off the authority of a family, mother and father, and tries to explode that and disintegrate that to redefine the family, once the authority of the church is pushed off to the margins of society, then they start calling for the abolition or destruction or the defunding of the police, any civil authority. And then the society just descends further into chaos. And that is exactly what we are seeing today.

Let's hear one more portion of John MacArthur. So many times we've gone back to Romans chapter 1, but just a reminder, verse 28, says they didn't see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

They not only do those things, they make them legal. So I understand also how discouraging this is. We have been an incredible beneficiary of God's kindness, haven't we here? Because we've been able to go through this horrible time and be together and worship and proclaim the gospel and the Word of God. But while at the same time we enjoy this wonderful island of sanity in the midst of the sea of insanity, we're not unaware of what's going on around us. This cannot be our best life, and it's not going to get better.

Evil men grow worse and worse. This is a free fall, not temporary. We're going down, and we're going down under the sheer force of unbelief and sin, unprotected and unrestrained by the judgment of God. Can we fix it? No. Should we join it?

Of course not. We can't join the hate and the anger and the racism masquerading as virtue. First John chapter 5, we're reminded that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and it is passing away. So now he's given us the reality of the situation, some would call it the bad news. Watch the transition here to the good news and the hope for the believer, for the one who repents and puts their faith in Jesus Christ. In contrast to that, Philippians 3 tells us that our citizenship is in heaven, from which we wait eagerly for a Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform us into His own likeness. This is not our best life, not by any means. To all who are in Christ, our best life is yet to come. Our best life is the glory of heaven.

We have an inheritance. The only question is can we trust God's Word? Well, Hebrews 10 23 says He is faithful, that promise. And Romans 4 21 says what God has promised He is able to do. The God who is truth, who defines truth, who speaks truth and only truth, promises to all who are in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. That is summed up by the past act of election, the present act of redemption and the future act of glorification.

The first blessing was to be chosen, the second blessing to be redeemed, the final blessing to be glorified. Again, that was Pastor John MacArthur. This is why it's so important not just to go to church, or hear any old preacher, but preaching that is based accurately on the Word of God.

And that's what he's been doing for over 50 years, and how God has used him and other preachers who are sound like him, he's not the only one to make an impact on people's lives for eternity. And so if you listen to that today, and you see these things going on in our society, you see the tidal wave of sin and wickedness taking place. And most importantly, you see this sin in your own life.

And you don't know how to get out of it. You don't know if you're saved. You don't know if you are right with God. Let me just urge you, just do what Jesus said. Repent and believe in the gospel.

The gospel is literally the good news that God sent his son Jesus Christ to earth to live a perfect life, the life we should have lived, but didn't. And then offered himself as the perfect substitutionary sacrifice for your sin and my sin on that cross. He satisfied God's wrath and justice over your sin. And then he rose from the grave victorious over sin and death, proving that God had accepted his sacrifice. And he calls us, he calls you to put your faith, your trust, your belief in him, not in your own good, supposed good works, but in Jesus' work on your behalf on that cross.

Do that today. Just pray to God, tell him you know you're a sinner, and you understand that Jesus Christ, his son is your savior. God will forgive you of your sin. He will make you a new creation. You will be born again and have this hope to overcome this evil world and hope for eternal life in heaven. There is no more important message than that.

Now, we don't have much time left on the program. I wanted to get to the issue of, can you be forced to get the vaccine by the government or your employer? And the answer is no.

But read this column that is linked in the preview for today's program on thechristianworldview.org. And by the way, if someone asks you whether you have gotten the vaccine, that's really none of their business. Your response should be, my health care decisions are private. That's what HIPAA laws are supposed to be about. But again, read this column and you'll see you do not have to get the vaccine for a number of different reasons listed in that column.

And one of them is that this has not been FDA approved yet. And frankly, why would you get the vaccine? It doesn't keep you from getting COVID. It doesn't release you from having to wear a mask or to be distanced from other people. If you saw the President Biden address to the joint houses of Congress, you saw this.

They were wearing masks and sitting far apart from each other. And I'm assuming that most of them have already been vaccinated. We'll try to cover this more in an upcoming program. But be sure to read that press release linked on our website, thechristianworldview.org. In the meantime, thanks again for joining us today. Remember, Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday and today and forever. Until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. We'll see you next time. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.