Producer Mike for the Alex McFarlane Show, listen to this. Alex is the Christian voice we need right now. I love listening to him, and the guests he has on the show are just amazing. I highly recommend his podcast. Great words, Alex.
Well, we give God the glory. We thank the listeners for kind sentiments like that, but we give God all the glory. But folks, please listen in, spread the word. You're spreading the gospel. Tell others about our programming, and we sincerely thank you.
U The spiritual condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. If you've listened to our stuff much at all, you know that I love the verses in God's Word which speak about presenting and even defending the Christian faith. Hi, Alex McFarland here. We are coming to you from beautiful, beautiful Montana.
This is the first of the first camps that we do all summer long. The Equip Retreat, it's apologetics, it's evangelism. This summer, as we've done for 27 summers, we're in front of hundreds of young people, and what a joy to get into God's Word, proclaim the gospel, get into apologetics. What a joy to see God moving in the lives of young people. And already here in Montana, we've seen several young people give their heart to Christ, many dozens of young people that I've spoken with who've said they've recommitted themselves.
Their life, or they understand the Bible better than ever before. And we're going to talk about that. Later on in the show, we'll talk with one high school senior and one college student about the challenge but the joy of standing bold for Christ even in the 21st century. But right now, a friend that I've mentioned many times in the radio, we've been friends for several years now, working together in apologetics. His name is Frank Figueroa.
He's got a fascinating story. I kid you not, hands down, one of the absolute best apologetic speakers that I've ever had the privilege of hearing. My respect for this guy is just off the charts, but he's speaking all over the country in camps this year. It's Frank Figueroa. My dear brother Frank, defender of the faith, welcome to the program.
Aloha, thank you so much for having me, Alex. It is a joy to be here, especially in Montana. Indeed.
So, Aloha, tell us about that because I think that greeting probably gives us a clue as to your background. Yeah, I'm from the island of Oahu in Hawaii, born and raised, born in 1969, and lived there all my life before the past four years. Worked as a, got my degree as a science educator, and then moved into wanting to do ministry, being raised in the Calvary chapels and being taught expositionally, book by book, verse by verse, and seeing the importance of God's word. And being able to share why we believe what we believe through God's Word, just felt led to do ministry. And so I was a youth missions and worship pastor at Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor for about 14 years, and then was given the opportunity to be a lead pastor at YPO Grace Brethren Church for another 15 years before joining full-time with Reasons for Hope, now speaking on Christian apologetics all over the country.
Indeed.
Now on the apologetics topics, what are your favorite, your prime areas, the ones that you enjoy speaking about most? I started with creation apologetics, God being the creator of all things. As a person with a science background, it was a big thing for me to be able to explain to people why we believe what we believe in the fact that God created everything he said he created in the way that he said he did it. Being able to defend that position both biblically as well as scientifically. But then when I joined Reasons for Hope, I was tasked with tackling some of the cultural apologetic topics, things like gender and critical race theory or racism and different ideas like that.
So I dwelt primarily in those two realms. A lot of things dealing with creation and even subcategories of that, like flat earth, would be something that I've really gotten into lately and defending the non-flat earth position, but also dealing with a lot of cultural topics that a lot of teens and young adults are struggling with these days. And yes, you heard him correctly, flat earth. I know you may be thinking, what? But I get this on the road.
Even a few months ago, I was at a college and I had a young man, a Christian, said he was a Christian, but he was a passionate believer that the earth is flat, not spherical. And we talked for a while, and I, of course, did the Wise thing, I called Frank Figueroa because he has a great talk on that. But let's go back to science for a second. Was there in your education, certainly you were taught things like Darwinian evolution that mitigated against your belief in the Bible? How did you navigate that?
So in high school, I was a bad example of a student. I did poorly. I wasn't a believer until halfway through my junior year. And so I got off on a very bad foot. And then, when I realized that I had been lied to in a lot of the social things that I was taught.
I started to think, well, what else was I lied to about? And got into a Bible study that emphasized God's word being the importance. And then started getting books by ministries like Henry Morris and different people, the Genesis flood and Genesis record and things of that nature. And started really getting into those topics and understanding that the Bible wasn't just a book. or a story that people have passed down for thousands of years, but rather it was a factual account of what God actually did.
And what he said he did, he meant. And it could be substantiated not only in a biblical response, but also in looking at the scientific world around us. We can see clearly that the principles taught in the Bible are what we see happening scientifically in the world around us as well. I agree. And while my background was in philosophy and psychology and English, I have no science background whatsoever.
But I knew enough as I was a young Christian reading the book of Genesis that either God's account of creation was true or what I had learned in 18 years of public education was true. They couldn't both be true. That being said, how convinced are you, Frank Figueroa, how convinced are you that what Genesis tells us is accurate? Oh, I'm 100% convinced because what we see in Genesis is that God mentions nine times than God said. In other words, Genesis is not a scientific rationale or explanation of what happened.
It is a miracle. God spoke things into existence.
So we cannot take the book of Genesis as a scientific Definitive of what happened, but rather as a miraculous declaration of what God did.
Now, when we look at the scientific realm, it is seen in that too. One of the things that really got me going was the Krebs cycle, remembering studying, you know, how cells mutate and how they do that type of thing.
So, the question is: but if a cell has a minimal amount of parts that it needs to be able to function, be alive, Dr. Michael Behe, I believe the number was 40 when he came up with studying the bacterial flagellum. How did the cell get from 39 in which it was dead? to 40 in which it was alive and able to self-replicate, let alone from 27 to 28 or from 7 to 8. How did that happen without an intelligent designer causing all 40 to be there at the same time and function from the very beginning?
So there are a lot of things that I was taught that caused me to go, hmm, and when you studied actual science along with what the Bible says, you see that we have no problem reconciling science to the Bible. You mentioned Michael Behe, whom we've interviewed. Is that irreducible complexity?
Now, explain, if you would, please, what is irreducible complexity and how does that really help our case for creation?
So irreducible complexity is the idea that Organisms have a finite number of pieces or parts that they need to be functioning. For instance, speaking of the bacteria flagellum that Michael Behe was looking at through the electron microscope, you cannot have that bacteria functioning without all 40 distinct parts. One of the ways I like to explain it is kind of like a rat trap. Rat trap has five distinct parts: platform, hammer, catch, spring, so forth. Without those five parts, all operating and functioning and assembled at the same time, It cannot function.
It is no longer a rat trap. And so therefore the idea is that we have to be people who understand that things are irreducibly complex and God has made them the way they are to be able to function as they do with their finite amount of parts. But all those parts have to be there. They all have to be functioning. And they were made with a mind that has superior intelligence to anything else that exists.
And without the parts, it would be useless. How did the parts evolve in the absence of each other? And yet, and I don't believe in evolution, but that's just one of the questions that I believe Darwinian secular evolution can't answer. We're talking with Frank Figueroa, apologist, speaker with Reasons for Hope, a valued colleague. And we, as you may know, we partner every summer for camps all over America.
When we come back after this brief break, we're going to talk with a couple of the students here. They're learning about the biblical worldview, one from college, one from high school.
So stay tuned. A brief break and more. From Montana, Summer 2026, Biblical Worldview. Stay tuned, we're back after this. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly and we seem to be on a rapid moral decline. We've rejected God, morality, and we've almost completely lost our sense of patriotism. It's no wonder that many are asking the question: is this the end of America? Hi, Alex McFarland here, and I want to make you aware of my book, The Assault on America: How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late.
You know, our nation has seen politicians that are corrupted by greed and they've got a vested interest in power, and many of our elected officials seem to care little about the country that they've been appointed to serve. Read my book, The Assault on America: We Can Stand Up for Our Great Nation and Defend America Before It's Too Late. It's available everywhere. You can learn more on my own website, which is alexmcfarland.com. Read the book, The Assault on America: How to Defend Our Nation Before It's Too Late.
He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back. Alex McFarland here. Oh, I just wish y'all could see the scenery of where I am.
If you hear a little background noise, we're outdoors as I record this and we're in Montana. This is our first of eight youth camps this summer. And I just wish you could not only see the scenery of God's creation here in Montana, it's very, very beautiful, but experience what God is doing. We're doing all the fun camp stuff, hiking, and I just got through playing softball for about an hour with a bunch of guys. And I am reminded that my days of effectively swinging a baseball bat are like 30 years ago, but that's another story.
But I'm here with two amazing young women of God, Taya and Lily. Taya is in college. We were talking about Well, I'll let her tell her story and then Lily. But the thing I wanted you all to hear, everybody, is how we were talking about not just believing that Jesus existed, although he certainly did. In fact, the most verifiable life of the ancient world.
But being a Christian is not just saying, oh, I acknowledge historically there was a person named Jesus. It's much more than that, it's living for Jesus. And these two people at our camp, they exemplify that. And I just thought it would be such a blessing. For one thing, Lily and Taya, thanks for making some time to be with us.
And so, for the listeners, introduce yourself. Taya, you first. Horses, that's a thing in your life, but introduce yourself and if you would tell what Jesus means to you, Taya.
Okay, so I'm Taya, and I grew up as a lukewarm Christian. I didn't really know Jesus, I knew about him, I believed him, but I didn't really know about him until. I started in a dance group back home, and boy, was that a journey for sure. I met an amazing group of girls. They're like my sisters now.
And they taught me how to have a relationship with Jesus, how to read the Bible, and they are prayer warriors. They're amazing. I love them. And Jesus, to me, is my Savior. Like, you might hear that all the time, but it really is the truth.
I love him and I want to strive for his heart and strive to know him better. Hopefully, be able to tell a lot of people about him and about my story.
So. God bless you.
Well, you're telling a lot of people about him right now.
So let me ask you this, Taya. Your peers, to what degree do they care about God and really knowing God personally?
So my peers they kind of Are they don't really believe in God? Like some people from college, they didn't really believe in God. And so, I mean, as a Christian, it was hard to like be around them and be around like the behavior of someone who might not be Christian. But I tried to, you know, portray Jesus as best as I could through to these people who didn't really believe in God.
So. I know the Lord is using you, and it's a blessing to see your commitment to Christ. And Lily, you recently graduated high school, right? Yes, I did. Congratulations.
And what's next? You're going to go to a Christian university in Colorado, aren't you? Yep, Colorado Christian University. And I'm going to study kinesiology there to be an occupational therapist someday. God bless you.
That's really great to serve people that way. Lily, how has the Lord led your life, and what does Jesus mean to you?
Well, I had a little bit of a different background from Taya. My journey was definitely slower. I was raised in church. You know, I thought I knew everything that I needed to know. It wasn't until just a couple years ago, actually, at the same dance retreat that she was talking about, that I really realized what it looked like to.
Know Jesus in an intimate way instead of just knowing about him from going to church like I had my whole life. And so, in that experience, I realized that I wanted more and that he could give me more.
So, um The last couple years I just really worked on Building that relationship and that trust in him because at the end of the day, he's the only one that. Will never fail me. Amen. Amen. You know, at our camps every summer, we talk about how to personally know Jesus, but we also talk about like the evidence for the Bible, and the Bible is God's true, absolute word.
We talk about like creation versus evolution and the defending of the faith. How important is that, like, for your demo, your generation, to be able to defend what you believe? You feel like that's pretty important? Yeah, absolutely. Because we are a very science-based culture, I feel.
And so it's really hard to defend your faith against those. Seemingly irrefutable scientific claims when you don't have the right tools. And so that's one thing I've always really appreciated about. the equip camps and rallies is that they give you those tools that you don't really get anywhere else even from church. Tea, for those of us that are, you know, I'm old enough to be your parents, but and doing ministry camps, conferences, events, what could we do to better serve your generation to sort of pass the gospel on to the next upcoming generation like yourselves?
I think that just giving us some tools and ideas, like how, like Lily said, like, we need. An idea of how to refute those scientific claims. We need to be able to understand the Bible, maybe introduce Bible studies more if the youth hasn't read Bibles like on their own. instruct them to not like not just go to church and that's it but just strive after Jesus' own heart and just live more for him and not for society. Amen.
Amen. You know, when I look at you all, and again, folks, if you could see Taya, Lily, and also there's 100 other campers, just godly, joyful young adults for Christ. It's such a blessing. I think about 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. And I know you all are making a great difference for the gospel.
Taya, I'll tell you this: I know you love horses, right?
Now, you're majoring in equine science. Um, so these next two years I'll be uh majoring in animal science and then I'll be transferring to a four-year school to specialize in equine science.
Well, you know, I tell people, sometimes people call into the radio show and they'll say, will there be animals in heaven? And I believe absolutely, yes. It says the lion will lie down with the lamb. But Jesus comes back on a white horse and it says he is followed by 10,000 times 10,000 the church.
So we all better learn how to ride horses. Am I right, Taya? Yes, we are. We should. We definitely should.
Well, any final thought, Lily or Taya? Um I would say to your previous question, any adults in kids' life, just be present. Um I will say the hardest thing for me was that no one ever taught me how to read my Bible or um take notes or anything like that. Until I was much older, and it's definitely harder, so just be present. Youth, find yourself a mentor.
They really do want you and it makes a world of difference. Yeah, I would just say also, like Lily said, like parents. Learn how to lead your kids and teach them when they're young because then when they're a little bit older, then they can start taking initiative on their own and not have as much guidance with, like, hey, like, let's do Bible study, but just be, you know, guiding and loving and open to answering any questions. And if you don't have the answers, then you know, ask your pastor, ask, you know, go to the Bible and find it. And youth, don't overcomplicate studies.
I have, I have, um, Learned that overcomplicating it doesn't really help me to learn anything, but just find those resources and only use them like if you have a question or just need to look something up because overcomplicating it takes away like the meaningfulness of you know spending time with Jesus. Beautiful. Hey, we got to take a break, folks. Coming to you from beautiful Montana. Keep it in prayer.
God is moving in a lot of lives and we hope your life is well. We'll be back after this brief break. Stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.
Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses, Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert.
To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmacfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here.
We're going to resume our conversation with Frank Figueroa in just a moment. But let me talk about some things coming up that I think would be of interest to every one of you. Our Conversations That Matter Biblical Worldview Series resumes in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. June 20th, we've got an event, and this is kicking off a two-year tour that we call Revive U.S. We're traveling all over America.
We're going to be in Texas. We're going to be in Western North Carolina. We're going to be on the West Coast, all over. Talking about the gospel and spiritual awakening. And so, please, if you would go to the website alexmacfarland.com, look at the calendar.
June 20th, it's a free event, but I'll be talking about what are the principles of spiritual awakening and revival. June 20th, then, of course, I will be at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center, with Gary Habermas. He is just the world expert on the resurrection. We're going to be there in July. Late summer, we've got Eric Metaxas in Myrtle Beach.
And then I'm all over America. You can look at our calendar. And folks, let me just tell you that the gospel is free, but it takes resources to deliver that free message. We're on radio, television, we're on the road seven days a week. We're distributing thousands and thousands of pieces of literature and our books every year.
So pray about helping us. Number one, please do lift us up before the Lord. Your intercession is valuable. But if you would like to give a Tax-deductible gift that God will use to bring souls to Christ and revival to people and our nation. You can go to alexmacfarland.com, donate safely, online, securely, or if you would consider mailing a check to AMM.
As in Alex McFarlane Ministries, P.O. Box 485 Pleasant Garden, North Carolina, 27313. We're coming in on three decades of evangelism, apologetics. God has blessed. Many, many, many thousands of people have made a decision for Christ.
But we feel like we're just getting started and we want you to partner with us if God leads you. And together we can call our nation back to God.
Well, somebody God is using in a great way is my friend Frank Figueroa. He's a brilliant speaker. Hey, by the way, Frank, you travel a lot and honestly, folks, one of the best, clearest apologists I know. How can people find your schedule or maybe even consider bringing you to their city? Oh, wow.
You would go to rforh.com. and look up speakers And my name is there, and that's the information on how to get us near you along with that on our website. Or you can download our app, Reasons4Hope. If you type that in, you will see a black background with a blue asterisk. We use the asterisk.
As our symbol, because the asterisk usually points people towards something that further explains something they've just read. We want to point people not to something, but to someone, Jesus, and so we've used that. But reasons for hope, type that into your app store, any platform, and you will find it. And a list of all my speaking engagements will be listed there.
So yeah, anytime I will go, my wife and I travel together, so we will go anywhere, anytime, as long as the Lord allows it, and we would be happy to serve in your city. Amen. Amen. Well, it really is exciting. And one of the things, just like the students that you just heard in the previous segment, I believe kids are hungry, hungry, hungry for truth.
30 years ago, when I began to speak and do conferences and I would book my heroes like Josh McDowell, some denominational leaders would say, oh, I'm not sure people care about these things. Does God exist? Is the Bible really true? Evidence for the resurrection of Christ. Creation versus evolution.
But, you know, 28 years, 51 citywide events, 2,000 churches, and a couple of hundred camps. I think there's a market for this. What do you think, Frankie? Absolutely. What we're seeing in the next generation, especially, is they are hungry for truth.
They're tired of fluff. In fact, within the past year, we've seen what we've, you know, a lot of people have labeled as the Charlie Kirk effect. He has been, he was someone that brought forth a truth in a compassionate way, but it In a way that put people in a position that they felt cared for. Howard Hendricks, one of my favorite quotes of all time, Dallas Theological Seminary, said, People do not care what you know until they know that you care. At the camps, we have ample time to care about youth.
The cell phones are gone, and we can just have conversations and deep discussions. And there are a lot of hurting people looking for real answers. And as believers, we have real answers in the person of Jesus. And so, therefore, we should be prepared to engage in conversations and be able to talk to people about why we believe what we believe. Because what we believe and what they believe is going to matter eternally come that day when we enter eternity.
You know, when you and I go back to the chapel, the next session after we finish a softball game is open QA. And that's always one of my favorite things. And folks, to see, you know, very young middle schoolers and high schoolers. School is asking very deep questions. We love this.
In fact, in a few days, I'll be on the road in a city on the East Coast, and they asked me to devote one night, no prepared message, just open mic QA. And we found that to be like some of the most well-attended. And we're just, as the Holy Spirit leads, we're giving solid truth and giving the gospel. Don't you think it really draws? Unchurched people of all ages, when they realize that, like you or I, as a minister, we're willing to.
Tackle the hardest of the hard questions. And there are good, solid answers. And so I want to say to the pastors, the leaders out there: look, people are hungry. Advertise in your city that, look, come, bring your tough questions because God's word and All the evidence, it really does give an answer. Yeah, it's one of the most terrifying things that I do is to be able to be put on the spot.
And asked a question that you don't know what they're going to ask, and you don't know how they're going to respond. Yet, Even at times when we're not completely sure, saying, you know what? I don't know, and I've done this to a few people, how to answer that in a way that's. Actually, what it is you're looking for? Can we speak afterwards?
And not brushing people off and going through those answers in a personal way. People are shocked that, wow, you were willing, even if you didn't give an answer. Via the microphone to talk to me in person. But there are other answers that are very easy to give. Probably the two biggest questions that I get asked by most teens and young adults: number one: how can we trust your Bible?
How can we trust what you say God is saying in the word? And how can we believe that version and not the version of another religion? Why is your Bible the most accurate Bible? The second question that people ask is: if God is so good, why is there so much bad? Why is there suffering in the world?
And for that one, I always go to 1 Peter chapter 5: that God allows suffering in the life of a believer so that he will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us. And in that suffering, we get to know more about what Jesus. Experience and we get to be like him and share with people that we all suffer together because it says, after we have suffered a while, he will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us. And then we can encourage one another in the same way because we're all broken people trying to help broken people.
Well, indeed. And, you know, the real issue in the world is not money or politics, it's sin. And God has acted in human history to resolve the sin issue. And first, there's our forgiveness through what Jesus did on the cross, and then Christ is coming back. Let me ask you this: Do you believe Jesus is literally going to return to the earth one day?
He's going to come back and take us back. And so, I am looking forward to that day. I believe the Bible is pretty clear that He said, Behold, I'm going to prepare a place for us, John 14. And if He would be a fool to go prepare a place for us if he wasn't going to come back to take us to that place, as he promised in the same passage.
So he would be either, as Josh McDowell, who you mentioned, said, either liar, Lord, or lunatic. And so therefore, if he said he's going to do that, I believe he's going to do that. And I believe with each passing day, we're getting one step closer to him coming and taking us home. And I can't wait for that glorious day. And God has a 100% track record of keeping his promises, doesn't he?
He absolutely does. You look at the prophecies throughout the whole of scripture. Whenever he said something was going to happen, it came to pass. And so therefore, if he could raise himself from the dead, which I argue would be the greater task, surely him taking us to our home is a lesser task. And therefore, he's going to fulfill that promise as well.
Let me encourage all of you, first of all, obviously, if you've never put your faith in Christ, this is the most real reality imaginable. On the website, alexmcfarland.com, there's a tab, What Does God Say About My Relationship with Him? And if you need to come to Christ. Or if you need to come back to Christ, Jesus is as close by as a prayer. But let me encourage all of you, if you're a pastor, maybe a youth volunteer, a Sunday school teacher, begin to get apologetics content into your teaching and your Bible studies, because really we have the calling from God's Word to be ready to give an answer.
We're almost out of time, and oh my goodness, there's so much I want to ask Frank Figueroa, but just maybe a final encouragement or challenge that we are to rise to the words of 1 Peter 3.15 and be ready to give an answer. The questions are going to come whether you're ready or not.
So you might as well be ready. In other words, if we know that people are desiring A better way, a better answer. It would behoove us to be the people who are prepared, studied, understood with that answer so that we can share it with them, especially because these people matter. They matter enough to Jesus that He came and died for them and myself as well.
So we should be prepared to give them the answer that is eternally important, that points them towards the person of Jesus. From the Apologetics Camp in Montana, summer of 26, Alex McFarlane saying, stay bold, speak truth, you are making a difference. 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 alexmacfarlan.com.
You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
