The Alex McFarland Show-95 Ideas Have Consequences with guest Congressman Bill Redmon

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of Scripture.

Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus said this in his high priestly prayer. John 1717, he prayed for believers and the church. He said, Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. And you know, we believe that the Bible is God's word and as such is truth. Well, we've got a great show today and a very special guest, Congressman Bill Redmond from New Mexico, and we're going to talk about the battle for ideas. Now, God's word is truth and truth is that which corresponds to reality. In other words, truth is the way things really are. But we're living in a time when a lot of people are rejecting truth. We're living in a time when a lot of persons in leadership, whether they be elected officials or teachers in a classroom or talking heads on television, they're saying things that aren't true. So what we're going to talk about in this program is truth, your role in defending truth, and why truth matters so importantly to individuals and to the future of our nation.

Well, I want to say what an honor it is. I'm here with Bill Redmond, a former congressman from New Mexico, and he and I both are at Karras Bible College this week teaching. I've been teaching biblical worldview to the entire student body. Congressman Redmond, you are teaching in the, well, it's called the School of Practical Government. It's basically a political science program. But first of all, I want to say welcome to our program and thank you for making time to be with us.

Well, it's great to be here with you, Alex. And yes, I'm here this week at Karras for the third year students. And these are students that are, some of them are likely to run for office at any particular point in their career, in their calling. And we're teaching them how to run a competent campaign that will honor God as they campaign. Give us a little bit of your journey, and I know you've served the Lord in many capacities, including as an elected official, but tell us what God has done and is doing in your life. Well, I came to know the Lord while I was at a campus ministry, Murray Christian Fellowship at Murray State University. From there, I was reading Josh McDowell at the campus house, and I thought, if this is true, I got to go to Bible college. I went to Bible college, ended up going all the way through seminary. I have a master's of divinity in philosophy and theology, and the focus of my research is philosophy of science. And from there, went to New Mexico, Los Alamos, New Mexico, more scientific PhDs per capita than any other place in the world.

Started a research group there with Christians who are engaged in the scientific enterprise so that they can see that all things come under the Lordship of Jesus, including science. But in the midst of all that, I was called to run for office and ran against former Congressman Bill Richardson. I was defeated by him in 96, but won that seat in New Mexico congressional district three in a special election in 97 and served out that term. Well, not only a Christian, but a minister running for office. Do you believe Christians should be politically engaged?

Oh, absolutely. And for a while I was calling my training for candidates, the Garfield Project. James A. Garfield is the only preacher to ever become the president of the United States, and he was a Christian church disciples of Christ minister. When you read his diaries, he'll say that, you know, in the House of Representatives, we passed this bill, we worked on this initiative, and in the evening I went to such and such church, preached the gospel, and baptized 34. And just seamless.

There's no compartmentalization in the man's life. You know, you and I in all of our conversations, which, by the way, are very rewarding to me, and my wife and I thoroughly enjoy every time we get to speak with you. You and I have referenced several times some names that have meant a lot to both of us. Josh McDowell, of course. Chuck Colson. Francis Schaeffer.

Though neither you nor I would have known him personally, but Abraham Kuyper. And, you know, talking about Garfield not compartmentalizing, talk to us a little bit about the need that we bring biblical truth into every area of our life. Not put it over in a silo and then our vocation is over here, but ideally the Lord Jesus and his word should permeate all that we are and all that we do.

Absolutely. And most Christians, they think that the status quo in churches today with this compartmentalization is the way that it always has been. And the church has not always been compartmentalized by this. It wasn't until David Hume and Immanuel Kant that the whole world was fragmentized and put into compartments, and the church bought into that both evangelical, mainland Protestant, both Catholic, liberal Catholic, and conservative Catholics as well. Nobody has not been affected by those ideas, and of course the ideas of Hegel. And so, you know, Christians today were now paying for more than 200 years of compartmentalized theology. And instead of addressing theology from a biblical perspective, we've allowed the philosophies of our day to dominate what goes on in evangelical churches, liberal Protestant churches, and also in the Catholic Church. One of my favorite passages that I just keep beating the drum on this one passage, when Paul writes to the church in Colossae, chapter 2, verse 8, in the imperative tense form, he commands those Christians in Colossae, he says, see to it that no one takes you captive.

So just those very words alone, we should realize it is possible for us to be taken captive. Well, what was Paul concerned about? He was concerned that Christians would be taken captive by the empty and the deceitful philosophies of men. Now, I've got a background in philosophy. You have some training in philosophy from your theological training, and it's important to understand the philosophies of the world.

But as Os Guinness says, Jesus said that we're in the world but not of the world, and because God loved the world, we should understand the world so that we can witness effectively. But it's a problem that in the last 200 years, these philosophies have come into the church and they've driven the agenda for the church, and they have separated us from our calling in the Great Commission and the Dominion Mandate. You know, some years ago, R.C. Sproul, great theologian, had the privilege of having him on this program.

R.C. Sproul, though, wrote a book called The Consequences of Ideas. And philosophies, worldview, folks, the philosophies and teachings floating around, and there are so many out there, but they yield repercussions. Good ideas can yield good repercussions. Bad ideas can yield, frankly, tragic repercussions. We've got a break coming up, but we're going to talk about the consequences of ideas and how people can play a role. But before we take the first break, where may people find you online?

Do you have a website or an organization that you're a part of? They can Google how to run for office as a Christian conservative, and they will see the training that we offer to Christians all across the country. And we've had people that have taken the training run and win everything from school board all the way to the U.S. Senate.

And they can find me there. Well, we'll come right back with Congressman Bill Redman from New Mexico. This is Alex McFarland. 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. 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 McFarland. 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 McFarland Show. The Bible says that we're to be sanctified through truth, and God's Word is truth.

Welcome back, Alex McFarland here with Bill Redman. Bill, it's such an honor to speak with you, and you know, when you're talking about ideas, and you mentioned David Hume, who really rejected the miraculous in the Bible. Sometimes we call that naturalism or anti-supernaturalism to deny the miracles, and then Immanuel Kant. You know, people may not be familiar with all of these names or philosophical trends, but we're in a time where, I'll be on the road, Bill, and I want your response to this, and maybe when I'm going to speak at a church, I'll slip into Sunday school.

Because, you know, I want to be fed too, and I've heard this countless times. People say, well, read a scripture and tell us, what does that mean to you? Is that problematic to approach the Bible with the question, well, what does this mean to me? Well, first of all, that is an absolute excellent example of what Paul was talking about in Colossians 2, verse 8. That whole activity that all of us have experienced in Sunday school or Bible school, where people are saying, what does it mean to you?

It's a relativistic philosophy that is the product of existentialist philosophy, and that's exactly what Paul said, that we are to be careful that we're not taken captive by those philosophies. Truth be told, every human being is a theologian, is a philosopher, and a politician. And the question is, how serious are you, and are you examining your theology, are you examining your philosophy, and are you examining your politics?

And politics is basically the discussion as to how we order our civil lives. And why would Christians not want to be at the table to participate in that discussion, since Jesus has already told us that we're supposed to be light and salt. But yes, the ideas have consequences, and just because you and I have been to seminary and Bible college, that when people are talking about truth, they often think of truth as some kind of a Greek philosophical concept. Truth is a person, his name is Jesus, and reality is in line with him, his person, because he spoke the cosmos into being. John tells us that through him and for him and by him, all things are made. Paul tells us in the letter of Colossians chapter 1 beginning with verse 15, he talks about all things seen and unseen by the power of the word of Jesus.

He who is truth created a universe that is in line with his character, and it's our sin and the sin of other human beings that puts that universe out of line, and that's why he went to the cross. You know, Bill, I think our abandonment of truth is illustrated nowhere more vividly than in transgenderism. I mean, the idea that a male could become a female, or vice versa. And I'm seeing in magazines now that they'll talk about a pregnant person, and inside I'm thinking, you mean a woman?

Or a birthing person? I mean, it's one thing to push back on righteous behavior, but we're living in a time as I see it, the battle of ideas, the clash of philosophies, where just absolute reality is being denied. Absolutely, and when we take a look at Romans 1 and when Paul talks about the whole list of sins, and homosexuality and effeminate sexuality, all of that is identified, and sometimes where Christians get it wrong is that those sins regarding same-sex relationships, they're not any worse than any other sin. The reason that Paul's talking there is he's saying that something that is so obvious, the human heart is obstinate against that which is so obvious. And that which is so obvious, the male and female, the binary relationship, it's not only that God has made us male and female, but the male-female relationship in a unique way reflects the image and likeness of God that I do not only as a male or my wife does not only as a female.

We each have the image and likeness of God, but there's a unique way in that binary relationship where another human life is created that the image of God is reflected in a way that is far beyond just any one person. Bill, how did our political realm get so far afield from what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration, self-evident truth and one nation under God? I mean, you and I both know our history and I've studied it, I've bowed my head and thanked God for our history and we've taught it. And yet now we are in a place where people running for office, well, I mean, even Hillary Clinton has said we have to have a Constitutional Convention because the Constitution needs to be updated, it's fluid, it's time we change it. I mean, frankly, that chills me to the bone, the idea that our Constitution could be deconstructed and rewritten.

Two-fold question, how did we get here and what would be the best solution to preserve our republic? Well, while Christians were sleeping, the philosophers were at work. That there were ideas, in fact, I just came across a passage, I was translating 1 Peter, I'm sorry, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 1 just this morning. And there's a word that is in the NIV, it talks about stimulate. The apostle Peter says, I want to remind you to stimulate.

When I looked in the Greek, it's not like nudge somebody or stimulate, it's to wake somebody up who is sleeping, which is far more than stimulate. And that's where the church has been and that message from 2 Peter 3 verse 1 that we need to remember, we need to wake up and remember the foundational principles that makes us Christians to begin with and how that faith, as it was lived out in previous generations and shown in previous generations, laid the found work for the republic in which we live. Often people think that the purpose of government is to help people and redistribute wealth. But when you look at the Declaration of Independence, which is the founding document of the nation is the Declaration of Independence. The framework of our government is the Constitution.

Two different documents, two different purposes. The Constitution rests on the Declaration of Independence. If the Declaration of Independence was not there, the whole Constitution would be fluid. But when you look at the Declaration of Independence, the most important sentence is the thesis statement that we hold these truths to be self-evident, are created equal, they're endowed by their Creator with certain, not questionable rights, but certain inalienable rights. And then when you go on it says that the purpose of government is secure for the individual that which comes from the hand of God.

What comes from the hand of God? The right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to pursue happiness. And the purpose of government stated in our founding document as a people, as a nation distinct from every other people on earth, distinct from every other nation on earth is the idea that government exists to secure for the individual that which comes from the hand of God. The most important word in the Declaration of Independence is not life, it's not liberty, it's not equality, it's not pursuit of happiness. The most important word in the Declaration of Independence is the word Creator.

You pull that one word out and the entire document collapses. You know, when I think about the state of our nation and Vice President Kamala Harris recently in an interview very strategically, she said that our government guarantees the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Conveniently left out the word the right to life. But I think about that quote by Adolf Hitler.

Hitler said, how fortunate for leaders that men don't think. Well stay tuned folks, we've got to take a break. When we come back we're going to challenge you, and I hope inspire you, not only to think, but to act. 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 McFarland Show.

Welcome back to the program. We're going to continue our conversation with Bill Redman. Before we do, I want to remind everybody that our website, two websites I'll give you.

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Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. I promise you everything that God provides our going staff. We now have seven staff members besides myself, and thousands and thousands of decisions for Christ every year.

And then I'm on media doing interviews all the time. Folks, together, God can use what we're doing to make a difference, and we sincerely thank you. But right now, somebody that I have such admiration for, Bill Redmond. I've got to ask you, living in New Mexico, Los Alamos, that's some pretty historic ground in terms of the 20th century, isn't it? Absolutely. In fact, many people ask me if I've seen the movie, Oppenheimer. I do not approve of the whole movie, Oppenheimer, but parts of that were filmed 400 feet from my front door.

And I have to pass Oppenheimer's house three, four times a day going to my office. So yeah, it is very historic. Not to mention very beautiful. I've always loved the American Southwest. Well, and the interesting thing is that the two things that ended World War II in the Pacific, okay, was Navajo Code Talkers and the atomic bomb. Both came out of New Mexico. Interesting.

Interesting. Well, speaking of history, I believe our nation is historic. I believe America was raised up by the sovereign hand of God. You and I have been talking about the consequences of ideas. We're in a battle of ideas. So Bill, with the moments we have left, could we talk about how a Christian and a citizen could make a difference for truth amidst this clash over ideas? Well, first of all, when I talk to people who are sometimes political, some of them are into the ideas they like to talk, they like to discuss, but they don't take action. And then there are those that take action that don't think. And so we have the thinkers that don't act and the actors that don't think.

And we need to bring both of those together in a very cogent way. And I believe that we are the steward of everything that God gave us. And in fact, we all know the parable of the Lord goes off and he gives each one of his servants a little bit of some talents. And then there's that one guy that buried it, okay? And you don't want to be anywhere next to the guy that buried it when the Lord comes because the Lord gets pretty upset. Think of all the Christians that bury their vote every election cycle.

What is God going to say to the men and women that instead of rolling up their sleeves, examining the candidates, examining the issues, understanding the times, making a decision to make a difference? I mean, in some states right now, like my state, grade school children can be mutilated in the public school system. Boys can be receiving the chemical castration drug as early as fourth grade and parents not even know it.

Girls are being mutilated. And if child mutilation is not enough to drive parents out, Christians, to the polls, I don't know what is going to dry them out. You know, when you think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, okay?

And when you also think of Daniel, you think that, you know, that they did the right thing even though that there was a penalty. And even when you take a look at, say, the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 4 when they're told, don't preach in the name of Jesus. And he says, well, you decide for yourself whether we should obey you, the government, or obey God. Well, we always obey God. But when you look at the whole issue of civil disobedience throughout the scripture, the first individuals to practice civil disobedience were the Hebrew women in Egypt when Pharaoh said that they had to kill their boys.

And the women rose up and saved their boys, including Moses. And if that is not an example for us to save the children, and beginning with this election for those people that are not engaged, that if saving our children or the kid that lives next door to you, you know, Jesus is going to come back and he says, well, when I was hungry, he didn't give me anything to eat. When I was thirsty, he didn't give me anything to drink.

When I was in prison, you didn't come visit me. When I was being ripped limb by limb in the womb, you didn't do anything about that. And when the children mutilated, where were you?

You know, I mean, Jesus is going to hold us accountable for whether we act in this society or not. Now, whether your vote makes a difference is a very important thing. When I was with Focus on the Family, and you were with Focus at one point in your ministry career, that worked with Tom Minnery, and there was one election, we were supporting the candidate.

This was in New Mexico. We had won over 80 elections because we moved Christians out of their house. Christians who had not voted in the previous four elections, we moved them out to vote, and then Christian candidates won. My favorite one is Dr. Terry McMillan, Southern New Mexico, that we found 1,965 pro-life people who were not voting. They did not vote in the previous four elections.

We sent three mail pieces to their house. More than 80% of that 1,965 people came out and voted. Dr. McMillan, our Christian brother, won by 12 votes. Had it not been for Christians coming out and voting for a Christian brother, Christians are not going to get elected. We all know the story about the Apostle Paul.

He's in Damascus, and his life is threatened, and the disciples put him in a basket, and they wrap ropes around it, and they let him out, and God lets him loose on Europe and into the whole world, and that is a parable for us. Either get in the basket or get on the ropes. If you're a candidate, get in the basket.

Get in the basket. But if you're not going to be the candidate, you need to get on the ropes and start supporting, both financially, volunteer, and absolutely coming out and voting, because voting, Christians coming out and voting, make a difference. It makes a difference. You know, as you and I record this, earlier today, President Biden, and I pray for the President and his cabinet. I wish them no ill.

I lift them up in prayer. But he came out, and by executive order, he wants to basically remove legal protection for the unborn in all 50 states, abortion all the way up to delivery, and Vice President Kamala Harris reassuringly said that full-term abortion doesn't conflict with anybody's faith. You can retain your religious beliefs and still believe in abortion to the end of the third trimester.

Here's my point. Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. I met him in 2015. I served on the faith board. I supported him, spoke at campaign rallies in 2016, took a lot of flack for it, and already I've had several of my pastor friends call me, Bill, and they'll say, Well, if Trump is the nominee in 24, I just won't vote. Here is, we've only got a couple of minutes, but my plea to fellow Christians, look, Donald Trump, I'm not saying you need to call him as your next pastor, but look, if it comes down to pro-abortion, anti-Israel, pro-terrorism, open borders, quarter million deaths a year due to the drugs coming across the southern border, handing out welfare, creating homeless encampments in major American cities, forgiving student loan with no permission.

I had to pay my student loans. But here's my point. If it's following the Constitution, the rule of law, Donald Trump promised to put pro-life constitutionalists on the Supreme Court, Roe was overturned thanks to Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett. Look, you can think what you want about Donald Trump, but he did what he said he was going to do. Being a friend to Israel, terrorism down, interest rates down, inflation down, becoming energy independent. I don't think those are bad things. With a couple of moments we've got left, talk to the Christian who just feels like they can't sully themselves by voting for a rude, bombastic person named Donald Trump.

What would you say to that? I would say they need to take a good look at the history of the world in the 20th century. The worldview that undergirds the Democrat Party at this particular point in history is a naturalistic worldview. More than 100 million people were put to death by their governments in the 20th century. And it doesn't matter whether you're looking at the Soviet Union, whether you're looking at communist China, whether you're looking at Nazi Germany, that all of those nations, the fundamental worldview was a naturalistic worldview that says that God does not exist. Now if you want to have religious feelings, you're permitted to have them for right now, but being permitted to have them in public is about ready to end in our country.

So this worldview will, as Francis Schaeffer says, it yields inevitable results. The bloodshed and the death and the misery that comes from political parties that bring this into their nations, it is vast and it is rivers of blood. And if we're not willing to stand up and look at this is what's going on, I used to be a Democrat, okay, and it was the abortion issue that brought me out of the party, and I've told my children, you know, the Republican Party leaves the pro-life plank, you know, you need to get out.

You need to go where God's going to be honored by your vote. And so you may get upset about the rudeness of Donald Trump, but Donald Trump did more to save the unborn. He did more to keep children from being mutilated. He did more to lift minorities, Native Americans, blacks, women out of poverty.

This is his record. Now I don't care, and I've not met him, I don't care for his personality as well, but we need to be voting for the principles because if you do not vote and we end up with another administration that is a continuation of this, which was a continuation of the Obama administration, a continuation of the Clinton administration, that this worldview train, this naturalistic worldview has inevitable results, and it's not life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is going to be death, it's going to be bondage, and it's going to be misery in America like you've never seen before. Well, there you have it, Congressman Bill Redmond from New Mexico. And what you've just said is maybe some of the most profound 90 seconds of insight that I've heard in a long time. And so, folks, before God, if you're a born-again believer, like Augustine said, until you are in the city of God, you have an obligation to the city of man. I call on Christians to pray, to be informed, to influence others. I call on Christians to vote.

I call on pastors, and I have pastored two churches, one in Charlotte, one in Greensboro. I know the fine line of diplomacy that pastors think they have to walk. But, brother pastor, you must get in your pulpit and tell your parishioners what the issues are, and influence them, tell them how to vote. Look, Congress will not take away your tax-free status, and even if they would, since when do we do the right thing only if it's quote-unquote safe? Our nation hangs in the balance. The freedom to live out the Great Commission stands to be lost. We must pray, vote, and take a stand for God and country.

We'll talk about this further on the next program. May God bless you. Stand strong.

Stay bold. Alex McFarland 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 alexmcfarland.com. You may also reach us at Alex McFarland, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404, or by calling 1-877-YES-GOD1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show. So visit the website, alexmcfarland.com, and look for the section that says, Ask Alex Online.