The spiritual condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. In Philippians 1, verse 6, the Word of God says, Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Hi, Alex McFarland here. You know, I think about that verse.
God completing the work He begins in our life. And this is a very, very special show because we're recording. At a place where my life was so shaped, Liberty University. And I think about the way God has worked in the life of Angie and me. But I want you, as you hear this program, think about how God has worked and is working in your own life.
Number one, I hope there's been that moment when you trusted Christ as your personal Savior, and then you're growing in the Lord, walking with Him, because He has a great plan for your life. And that plan will unfold and bear much fruit as you trust him. And someone who really personifies that is our guest today. He is the president of Liberty University, Dr. Dondi Kosten, an individual that I first met when I was a little boy because one of his relatives was my best friend growing up.
And we're going to hear how God has led his journey, and we're going to hear what God is doing through Liberty University and how God, through Liberty, is changing the world through Christian education. But without further ado, our guest, Dr. Dondi Kosten. Thanks, Alex. Great seeing you again and great to be with you today.
Well, thank you for making time. And I also want to say thank you for serving our country as you have. Give a little of your backstory, fascinating story of engineering, chaplaincy, the U.S. Air Force, and ultimately the presidency of the world's largest Christian. University, but tell us how God has brought you to this part of your journey.
I grew up in North Carolina and fortunately in God's providence I was born to two Christian parents who loved the Lord and I knew from the very beginning that they loved me and they understood that their goal in life was to make sure that I met the Lord face to face and so as a young boy age seven I was saved. I became a Christian and in high school probably called to the ministry but was afraid to death, scared to death to speak in public and so the Lord was gracious and allowed me to go to the U.S. Air Force Academy.
So while there, I was part of a Baptist student union and stayed close to the Lord. I often say that my mom prayed a Baptist chaplain back to the U.S. Air Force Academy to make sure that I kept the faith and thankfully I did. Engineer for about 10 years and during that period God renewed this sense of calling to become an Air Force chaplain. For me, it was an immediate call to be an Air Force chaplain.
I knew I didn't want to be a youth pastor. I didn't want to be a local church pastor. least at the time, but God called me to be a chaplain. I love the Air Force, I loved the Lord, and so he worked it out. And so after 10 years of being an engineer, I became an Air Force chaplain.
And my pathway really involved in a significant way Liberty University.
So while I was a second lieutenant, this was before the internet. Liberty had found a way, because Liberty has kind of always been on the cutting edge educationally, it found a way to provide accredited education to those of us who are in the far reaches. And so Liberty's in Virginia, I was in Florida, but I was able to get a master's degree in counseling, which was the first step to getting a Master of Divinity degree, which allowed me to be a chaplain. Fast forward 2018, I retired from the U.S. Air Force as a chaplain and then became president of Charleston Southern University, a South Carolina Baptist Convention School in Charleston, and then Liberty about two and a half years ago.
Congratulations. From the Air Force Chaplaincy, let me ask you this. I remember, I suppose it was in the early 2000s, there was a lot of news coverage regarding out at the Academy how some that were not Christians really kind of pushed back on Bible verses on somebody's dormitory door and things like that. Were you out there at the Academy during some of that? I wasn't out there at the time, but I was intimately familiar with it.
And, you know, one of the challenges in that season was that people forgot that the First Amendment also applies to military members. And there was a significant push to pull back from religion. There was a lot of opposition to that. And so one of the great things that I got to do as the Air Force Chief of Chaplains was to continue the restoration and reminding commanders and others that the First Amendment. First, for a reason.
It's not an accident that freedom of religion is the first thing that the Bill of Rights talks about. And so, in my time as Air Force Chief of Chaplains, I would often say to commanders: listen, you have a responsibility to help your warfighters take advantage of all the spiritual growth and development that they can experience, regardless of what their faith tradition is.
Now, as it turns out, about 85% of the time were Christians, and so why would we withhold from warfighters, especially and their families, that which the data says is so demonstrably good for them? And so, during my time as chief of chaplains, my focus was on a program we called Faith Works. And so, if I did nothing else as chief of chaplains, I at least helped to restore a sense of freedom of religion back to the service. Because, you know, for confidence and morale, soldiers defend. Human rights and America around the world, they need to have the spiritual food and the strength from a strong chaplaincy, don't they?
That's right. This is why General George Washington established the chaplaincy before we had a country. I mean, so in the Continental Army, in the Revolution, General George Washington himself established the chaplaincy because he understood exactly what you just said. He knew that because we're mind, we're emotions, we're spiritual, we're physical, we're holistic beings, he understood completely that there's no way we could have people away from home, away from their roots, away from their families, and not have a spiritual input. And so the chaplaincy was established because of that very thing.
And the chaplaincy exists to this day for the very same reasons.
Well, thank you for serving our country. We've got to take a brief break. When we come back, we're going to talk about education because the Christian faith uniquely speaks to the stewardship of the mind. And before we take this first break, Dr. Kosten, president of Liberty University, give us Liberty University's website.
It's a liberty.edu. And so we hope you check us out. We have 130,000 students online, 16,200 on campus, a law school, a medical school, everything that you would need, we have here at Liberty University. Contributing to the fulfillment of the Great Commission through education. Stay tuned.
Alex McFarland here along with Dr. Dondi Kosten of Liberty. We're back after this brief break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.
Over the last several decades, it's been my joy to travel the world talking with children, teens, adults, people of all ages about the questions they have related to God, the Bible, Christianity, and how to know Jesus personally. Hi, Alex McFarlane. I want to make you aware of my book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. You know, we interviewed hundreds of children and parents and families to find out the questions that children and people of all ages are longing to find answers for. In the book, we've got practical, biblical, real-life answers that they have about how to be a Christian in this modern world.
My book, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, you can find it wherever you buy books or at resources.afa.net. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. We're talking with Dr.
Dondi Kostin. And, folks, I wish you could see what I see, which is the beautiful horizon of the state of Virginia and the campus of Liberty University. You've heard our testimony so many times. When Angie and I were married three months, we moved to Lynchburg, Virginia. And Dr.
Coston, it's, I think it's about 120 miles. And looking back, we were so intimidated. I don't know that I had really ever been that far from home at that point. And yet, we came to Liberty and really. That's where we began as a couple.
You probably hear that story countless numbers of times, don't you? How people's lives and their preparation to serve the Lord were shaped here right on this mountain. It's one of the best things about being president of Liberty is hearing the stories of people, how they came here, why they came here. I often ask people, why did you come to Liberty? And the stories I hear are just often miraculous.
People just, as you did, you know, you probably, your parents probably like, what are you doing? You're crazy. You're getting married and moving to where? But God, you know, we have a sign on our campus that says, Training Champions for Christ since 1971. And Liberty University has always done that thing since Dr.
Falwell founded this university in 1971. Our focus has been on helping young men and women grow into their faith, being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, having the mind of Christ at a university. Where every professor is a follower of Christ on the exact same journey. Every professor teaches his or her discipline through a biblical lens with a biblical worldview because we know that all truth is God's truth. We know that what God wants for us is to flourish as humans.
He wants us to align with His purposes and His mission. And the way we live our lives in terms of human flourishing is to align ourselves with His plan, His will for our lives. And that happens mentally, emotionally, physically, with our resilience spiritually. All of those things happen, and liberty is a remarkable place, but it's also a miraculous place. Help us understand how some of the philosophical trends of recent years, like critical theory and, for lack of a better word, wokeness, has impacted American education.
And how has liberty stayed true to not only God's word, but just the pursuit of truth rather than submission? To a narrative. How have those challenges been navigated here in recent years? Really, it hasn't been all that difficult because we've always been grounded in the scriptures. We've always been grounded in conservative thought.
And what is conservative thought? It's conserving that which is true. And so, because our focus was always on scripture, always has been, when these outside ideologies come, we simply evaluate every ideology through the lens of scripture. And clearly, a wokeness idea, a critical race theory idea, those things do not comport with the God of heaven, who is a God of diversity. 1 Corinthians 12, if nothing else, the end of Revelation, when we will see that people from all tribes, and tongues, and peoples, and nations.
But what we are focused on is not dividing or divisions while we're here. We're focused on how we can come together at the foot of the cross. Indeed. You know, I was here during all those years with Dr. Falwell, and we admired him so.
And he was one of those people that you knew his convictions would never change. You could trust him because he trusted God. And I remember Dr. Falwell used to say, I know where I stand because I know where the Bible stands. And I've got friends, guys that I was in seminary with, that are now serving all over the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
And that has stayed with us. And champions for Christ. He challenged us to be that, and for God's glory, that's what we've aspired to. Yeah, that's right. And again, just as you've suggested now, Dr.
Falwell was firm in his convictions because they came from scripture. This is why a biblical foundation is necessary for a legitimate liberal arts education. You know, you cannot be truly liberated unless you understand who you are, who God made you to be. And again, all truth being God's truth, we simply discover through all kinds of ways who God is and who He wants us to be. And so, again, that's why I said earlier, it hasn't been that difficult because we haven't had to change.
You see, today, when the political administration changed and DEI wokeness went out, all these other schools had to revert back to the place we always were. And that is grounded in reality. And this is what we get to do. Fortunately, for those. of us in Christian higher education, our reality hasn't changed since the creation.
We look at creation order, we look at worldview, we look at what does it mean to have the mind of Christ and all of that is grounded in Scripture.
So our starting point is also our ending point. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of years ago in the aftermath of COVID and there was an article that basically talked about the fragmentation of the American mind. And, you know, we're politically divided. And this was not a Christian article necessarily. It was in the Wall Street Journal.
It said, bad teaching is tearing America apart. But there was a line in this article that said, college has become four years and $100,000 to discover that you can't know anything. Mm-hmm.
Now, that being said, do you believe the church has an opportunity? To call a searching culture to this oasis that we call truth, in a world where it's almost like. What can I know? Where am I? I mean, there's this crisis of identity because I think the West and America.
Has had a crisis of truth, therein for the church lies an opportunity. I would say, at least in my lifetime, there's never been a better opportunity than right now because this generation has tried everything else. They've seen the things that their parents have tried, which has failed miserably. And so the church has an opportunity now like we've never had before. I will often, when I talk about this, I'll put a chart up, and the chart shows the decrease in religiosity since about the time that the iPhone was instituted.
And so on this chart, you see religiosity going down. You see the incidence of the iPhone and social media going up. And at the same time, you see the incidence of mental health challenges. And so this generation is plagued by an epidemic of mental health challenges, suicidal ideation, and depression, and anxiety, and all kinds of other things. And what we get to do is show that there's a connection.
Between a decrease in religiosity and an increase in mental health challenges, and the Bible has always had the answer. We should be anxious for nothing. And we could talk about every single topic today. And what we get to do is bring people back to the central pillar, these moorings that we have, that are based in a 3,500-year-old book that has never failed and remains the world's bestseller. And so, why not go back to the thing that has always worked?
Indeed, stay tuned, folks. One more segment after this brief break. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Would you like a book to help you understand the biblical prophecies, the passages about the end of time?
Hi, Alex McFarland. You know, for well over a decade, Bert Harper and I have been on the nationally syndicated AFR show, Exploring the Word. Over 3,000 shows we've done together, and Bert and I have a brand new book as of fall 2025: 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times. You can get it at booksellers everywhere. Our brand new book, Bert Harper, Alex McFarland, Exploring the Word, 100 Bible Questions and Answers on Prophecy and the End Times, published by our great friends at Broad Street Publishing.
Check it out, and we believe it will help you understand how to live and thrive in these last days. Mm. Uh He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back, folks.
We're going to resume our conversation with Dr. Dondi Costa. And I want to remind you: we have the brand new book out, 100 Bible Questions on Prophecy and the End Times, Fresh Research. It just came out a couple of weeks ago, actually. It's available at BarnesNoble, Amazon.com, wherever you buy books.
We get these questions like: what is the role of AI in Bible prophecy? And might the Antichrist be alive even now? And will China attacks Israel at some future point? And what about the rise of anti-Semitism? We speak to all of those issues and more, and I would ask you to prayerfully consider that and all the other resources that God's allowed us to create.
Because you know me, you know our heart and our organization. We care about evangelizing the lost and equipping the saved. And one last little reminder: we always talk about it this time of year next summer. You're probably not thinking about the summer of 2026 yet. But Angie and I will be at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in Western North Carolina.
In the month of July, I'll be there teaching. And then we do a three-day weekend that's Bible refresher. But then I'll be there five days at the end of July with Dr. Gary Habermas, world-renowned apologist. Biblical Archaeology Review calls him the world expert on the resurrection of Christ.
So the website for the Cove is thecove.org, T-H-E-C-O-V-E, spelled just like it sounds, thecove.org. Every summer we have people from literally around the world. We would love for you to join us as we do a deep dive into God's Word and we draw closer to each other and closer to the Lord next summer at the Cove.
Well right now, what a privilege, and it is a privilege to be in the office of the President. Of the presidency of Liberty University, Dr. Dondi Coston, Chief Chaplain for the U.S. Air Force, served the Lord and our country in so many ways, now leading Liberty University, my alma mater. But thank you for your time.
You're very gracious, and we appreciate you being on the program. Love being here. Thanks, Alex, for all the work that you have done as a champion for Christ since you graduated. You have made your alma mater incredibly proud.
Well, that means the world to me. We love the Lord, and we believe in the Great Commission. And I know Angie, my wife, would concur. It prepared us for a life of service. And I want to throw a question to you.
At the beginning of the program, I shared Philippians 1, verse 6, which I love. There might be people listening, and I always encourage young people to get your education because Uh an education will save you time. I say this to young people, and I was just in front of 1,100 teenagers at a youth event in North Carolina, but you can struggle four years or you can struggle your whole life. By that, I mean, I realize a four-year degree is a heavy lift. But without it, life is even going to be harder.
But Dr. Costin, speak to the person out there who's not 18. twenties through seventies. I participated in the ordination of a 74-year-old man who did an M div, went into the ministry. Talk about how someone who is north of 25 could get an education and at any stage of life begin to find God's plan for their life and future.
Yeah, that story really is my own story because when I was called to be a chaplain, Liberty University was the only school who was offering the kind of education I needed in a way that I could access it because I was stationed in Florida and Liberty University is in Virginia. And so Liberty has always sort of been on that cutting edge. To your earlier point, this past year. Commencement, was our largest commencement Liberty's ever had. We had about 32,000 graduates, but one of those graduates.
was a ninety four year old lady Who received her Doctor of Education degree. And she did it not because she planned to use it for the rest of her career, because she'd retired a couple of decades or so ago. She did it because it's something that she just had started back in her 60s, but wanted to finish. And so she and her daughters, adult daughters, they came out to the commencement. We have a picture of her, the oldest graduate at 94 with a doctorate, with the youngest graduate with a doctorate at the same time.
And so these two together.
So I would say that God calls us for different reasons. My own educational experience was that I often found in my professional life there were gaps in my knowledge. And I knew that God wanted me to go into a season of preparation because that preparation, I didn't always know what was going to be next, but He made it clear to me that if I was willing to prepare, He would open additional doors.
Some people do additional education. Just because, like the lady that I just mentioned, they want to accomplish something else. It's something they've always wanted to do. They wanted to study a subject or get a degree. But for most of us, as the old saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
When we know that we don't have everything that we need intellectually or in our spiritual life, liberty is a place. where you can come and study just about anything you can imagine and do so in the company of professors and fellow students who are on the same journey. Different pathways, different end games perhaps, but on the same journey. And so I would just encourage everybody to consider education as something that perhaps God wants you to do. Last question.
In 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20, the Apostle Paul says that we are not our own. We're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your mortal body. Isn't it true, Dr. Constin, that for the Christian, really all of life is stewardship?
And that would include how we learn, the life of the mind, our time. Speak to us about the overlap of stewardship and Christian education. Yeah, I often say to our students: there are really only two ways to live. You can live your life aligned with God's design for human flourishing or you can live the world's way. You can either build your life on the rock that is Christ or build your life on sinking sand.
You can either live your life as one who thinks, as most of the world does, that the day you take your last breath is the day that you cease to exist. We know that not to be the case. We know that you're created at conception and your life never ends. And so if you live your life thinking that your life ends the day you take your last breath, that's a whole different perspective. But if you live your life knowing that your life on this earth leads to eternity and the rest of your life will be in eternity, then it changes this notion of stewardship.
I am here not just for myself. I am here to serve other people. I steward my physical abilities, I steward my intellectual abilities, I steward my resources, not so that I can have more, but so that I can be used by God, so that others can understand what it's like to live the life with Christ, both for time and for eternity. Champions for Christ, folks, one of those champions can be you. In fact, God designed you to be that champion for Christ.
Well, Dr. Coston, on behalf of myself, I want to say thank you for your time. We love Liberty University, and we'll be praying for you as you lead this great school. Thank you, Alex. It means so much to us that an alumnus of your stature would come and still be doing what God has trained you to do.
You are a champion for Christ, training others to be champions for Christ. To God be the glory. Folks, thanks for listening. Share this, spread the word. Tell somebody about the program, but most of all, tell somebody about Jesus.
Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth. Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarlane.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1. That's 1-877-YESGOD1.
Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
