The Alex McFarland Show-106-Christianity, Apologetics and Wokeness Part 2

The spiritual condition of America, politics, culture, and current events, analyzed through the lens of scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. The Welsh preacher and physician, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, said this. He once gave a sermon called The Battle for the Mind. He said, From beginning to end, the Bible is a book that encourages men to think. Hi, Alex McFarland here.

Welcome back to the program. If you'll recall, we did a show about some of the philosophies that really undergird wokeness and political correct thought. And we're going to elaborate on that for a lot of reasons. One, as the Bible says in Isaiah 1, verse 18, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And we've talked about the fact that the Bible does place an emphasis on rational thought. I would submit to you that a lot of the worldview that is vying for the hearts and minds of people today, and the worldviews that frankly, I believe, threaten our constitutional republic, are worldviews that are illogical. They are not corroborated by outside evidence. They certainly don't harmonize with the Word of God, and they produce poor results. There was a book that I've mentioned before, probably 45, maybe 50 years ago, by Alvin Plantinga, The Twin Pillars of Christian Scholarship. What are those twin pillars that bring us not only to knowledge of truth, but relationship with the Lord, if we'll let them? Faith and reason. One of the most brilliant 20th century Christian philosophers, Alvin Plantinga, talked about faith and reason. Now faith is trust, and trust is based on your response to the available knowledge. When we talk about putting our faith in Jesus, we know that he lived.

We know that he rose from the dead. It's the most verifiable life of the ancient world, the life of Christ. So it is trust, it's belief, it's faith, but it's a faith most certainly based on solid evidence, and as my mentor and friend Dr. Gary Habermas and Dr. David Beck would say at Liberty, that Christian faith is, quote, justified true belief. In other words, what is unjustified and irrational is obstinate unbelief in the face of compelling evidence. So there's faith and reason, and we've talked a lot in that first edition of this program about reason, that God made us to know things. My friend and mentor the late Norm Geisler, he passed away in 2019, Dr. Geisler famously in one of his books called When Skeptics Ask. It's a great book.

It's responding to the battle of world views. But in When Skeptics Ask, there's an appendix, and it's brilliant, called Reasoning to Christianity from Ground Zero, from the basics. And one time I was with Dr. Geisler, and I said, that's just amazing, everybody should read this.

And he said, well, it's just very true. Beginning with this, and this is how very often I deal with unsafe people, even sometimes people that are very hostile to the gospel, we start with things that we can agree on. And let me encourage you, and I hope you are being a witness for Christ, and I hope you're trying to share the gospel with people, if you start with points of discussion that you're just incredibly far apart on, it's hard to make progress.

But it goes back to the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, starting with things you can agree on. Now Dr. Geisler, in the book When Skeptics Ask, and Reasoning to Christianity from Ground Zero, he would start with this, and this is very much like Descartes or Aristotle would do, self-evident truth exists. Are there any truths that are self-evident? Well, I exist. That must be undeniably self-evidently true, because even to question whether or not I exist, I have to be here existing in order to even ponder, am I really real? Now at this point, when I've spoken at many universities, guys, and these are usually college guys, about 19 or 20, during the Q&A they'll raise their hand and they'll say, well Mr. McFarland, what if we're just an app running in somebody's hard drive?

Now you might think this is crazy, but bear with me. There are a lot of people that ponder things like this. What if reality isn't real?

In the Eastern world, in Hinduism and Buddhism, very often there's the assumption that the word for it is maya, m-a-y-a, divine play. In other words, we're just a dream in the mind of Brahman, and reality is not real. Now in the Western world, since the movie 25 years ago, The Matrix, this is where the college boys that have read blog sites, they'll say, well maybe we're just an app or a program in some, if there even is a God, their computer. These are called counterfactuals, because the creative human mind has no lack of coming up with ideas. Maybe aliens brought us here, maybe a lot of things. Maybe there's the ghost of Elvis in my microwave, as was famously on the National Enquirer 50 years ago.

Yeah, maybe. But we have no evidence for that. To kick around counterfactuals, that might be fun party discussion, but let's talk about reality. In reality, we have creation and conscience and scripture and savior. Creation had to have a creator. We know the universe had a beginning. Something beyond space and time had to initiate that. You know, it's amazing, I'll read journal articles on science pages and they'll say, well you know, there was the singularity, this infinitely dense point of matter and energy, and it burst forth, and we know the universe had a beginning point.

We know the universe is expanding outwardly. So what was prior to the singularity, this physics event, that matter and energy burst forth and we have our universe and solar system? Well, whatever initiated or caused, it had to have all the power in the universe. It had to be something that had intelligence, because the universe is just pregnant with information and meaning and purpose and specificity. And whatever caused the Big Bang must have had volition or choice. Now on and on these articles will go and when you talk about omnipotence, all the power, omniscience, all the wisdom, when you talk about volition, the ability to choose and create, when you talk about something that is not matter but spirit, not bound by time but eternal, those are the attributes of God. Those are the characteristics of God. And so self-evident truth exists, and from self-evident truth, undeniable truth, we can reason to God.

But coming to God is more than just brute intellect. It's a matter of the heart. We'll talk more about this when we come back. Stay tuned. The philosophies battling for the souls of people.

More about that when we return. 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. Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here. You know, I began with that quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones that from beginning to end, the book is a Bible that encourages men to think. And I was referencing Dr. Norman Geisler's reasoning to Christianity from ground zero where self-evident truth exists. In other words, there are truths that are undeniable. And in fact, the hyper-relativism of our times that there is no ultimate truth, I make my own truth, we somehow must know that that is contradictory.

Because if I make my own truth, and that is truth, what about the person who says, well, no, I don't make my own truth? We cannot live in a world of absolutely incompatible opinions. There has to be something above the fray that is bigger, more substantive, more lasting, ironclad, bulletproof, in other words, reasonable, beyond our opinions. And that is God and revelation. Now, I want to go back and talk about some of the philosophical dominoes that have been falling that influence our culture and our world today.

But basically, I'm going to give the points, and then we'll come back. Here are the flaws of wokeness, critical theory, postmodernism, liberal policy, call it what you will, neo-Marxism. Here are the flaws. The idea that there is no God, there is no truth, we call the shots, we are self-determining, all of these things, that we can change our gender, we can redefine marriage, we can tax our way to prosperity, that's a flaw, that's a fallacy. We are safer by abolishing the police, that's delusional.

The country is more stable if we have no borders, that's treasonous. Okay, fill in the blank. Many of ideas out there in the world today. Number one, these things cannot be thought about concretely. Number two, they can't be defined objectively. Number three, they can't really be discussed coherently. Fourthly, they can't be lived consistently.

And number five, they cannot be implemented justly. Now, I'm going to come back and explain what I mean by all of these things, but part of the genius of the Western world, and certainly it was the philosophical foundation of America, at least up until about 25 years ago, there was this, as we said last week, unity of thought. In other words, the world was created by God. Humans know about God and His law. Because we have the Bible, of course, but it's written on the heart of all human beings. We know right from wrong. So up until recently, there was this agreed-upon worldview, God, truth, human accountability. And that truth was absolute. And truth is not something I invent, but something that I find, and if I'm wise, I will live by. Truth is not something that I determine for myself, but truth is something I discover.

And again, if I'm wise, I live by it. Truth is exclusive. In other words, it's not for deconstruction or reinventing by anybody, but truth is objective and absolute.

And two words that I threw out, and I want you to really follow me on these. For one thing, there is the truth called foundationalism. That reality and my knowledge of truth and the world around me, life and morals, there are some foundational principles by which I learn. And listen, you might have been to college or not.

You might have what the world would define as formal education or not. But the beautiful thing about truth and wisdom, it's available to anybody. Now, in the belief, and this is part of a biblical worldview, foundationalism, which besides being assumed by scripture and people like Paul, foundationalism was embraced by great thinkers like Plato and Aristotle, and it really was the basis of knowledge and thought in the Western world. Foundationalism has been the basis of Christian thought since the beginning of history.

Now, what is foundationalism? There are some basic ways that we think. Truth can be expressed in words.

Truth can actually be known. There are the laws of rational thought. Now, when I'm at universities talking about this, they'll say, oh, well, reason, rationality, logic was invented by man.

I disagree. Logic is like math. Man discovered it.

Man did not invent it. So there are foundations. And from the very beginning, even little babies, as they learn to talk, they know mama and daddy. They know Hungary.

They know, uh-oh, you know, things like this. From the beginning, and this is part of the imago deo, being made in God's image, we were created to communicate and use language. And, folks, it's little wonder that the progressive, left, woke, critical theory world that wants to say just things that at best are fallacious and at worst are actually demonic, that they don't know what a woman is, don't know what a man is, that we've got to deconstruct and basically dismantle all moral boundaries and reconstruct. Listen, if we don't get some presence of mind and some courage to speak truth and defend our Judeo-Christian representative America, listen, this is not about being born again and saved. I hope you are born again. But whether you're a Christian or not, every last one of us has a vested interest in the preservation of our constitutional republic, which absolutely was and is based on biblical principles. Because if we lose all moral boundaries, all that we can hope for for the rest of our lives is lawlessness, anarchy, and basically the greatest nation on earth turning into some third world ghetto. And that's why I'm saying, regardless of whether or not you're a born again believer, it behooves you and all of us to understand that there are truths, the foundation.

Foundationalism says that logic and morals, reasonableness, accountability, truth, and everyone's commitment to live truthfully and honestly, this matters. Now when we come back, I'm going to give you another pillar of a civilized world and how all of us, with God's help and for God's glory, we can stand for what is real and true and against what is false and destructive. Stay tuned. We've got a break.

We're coming right back. 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 2200 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 alexmcfarland.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 McFarland Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here.

We're talking about apologetics, Christianity, and the philosophical foundations of the woke world that we are speaking against. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that listens to this program. As I travel the country, we've got a major event in Arkansas in the month of May. Of course, June through August, we've got our summer camps and you can learn about those at alexmcfarland.com. We'll have 1200 middle school and high schoolers in seven summer camps this year all over America. Obviously, we're talking to kids about being saved, but let me tell you folks, these young people, they love to learn how to defend the Christian faith.

They love and I love to see the light bulbs switch on and contrary to what they've been taught in public school, they learn to love America and they realize that they've got a role to play. I am so grateful that we've got a full summer of camps, conferences, and your prayers and support make it possible. We could definitely use an extra $50,000 to help pay for camp for all these young people.

So if you feel so led on alexmcfarland.com, you can make a tax-deductible gift. But then the Cove, July 12th through 14th, Angie and I will be at the Billy Graham Training Center in western North Carolina. Now, there are still spaces to attend the lodging, I'm told, at the Billy Graham Training Center. The lodging, I think, is full, but right across the highway just a mile away, there are a number of hotels. The Cove has packages where you can attend and eat the meals and visit with us, attend all my sessions as I'll be teaching through 1 John, the believer's identity in Christ, the believer's authority in Christ. We'd love to see you at the Cove, and then I'll be there twice in the summer of 25.

Anyway, the website for that is thecove.org, T-H-E-C-O-V-E, thecove.org. And whether you come to my seminars there or Dr. Erwin Lutzer or all of the great speakers, Will Graham, Anne Graham Lotz, Tony Evans, the Cove is just a national treasure, and I hope you'll be a part of all the great Bible training that goes on there. Well, before we wrap up today's show, I want to give a quote that I think is very inspiring. The great Thomas Aquinas, 800 years ago, 1225 to 1274, he said this, quote, Whatever arguments are brought forth against the Christian faith are conclusions incorrectly derived, and so there exists the possibility to answer them. Now some modern translations of Aquinas put it this way. Whatever arguments are brought forth against the doctrines of the Christian faith are conclusions that are illogical, and therefore there exists the possibility that we answer them. If somebody says God doesn't exist, no, he does. And it's reasonable to believe that creation had a creator, design had a designer. The moral law that is written on all hearts is the result of a moral lawgiver. Somebody says, well, Jesus didn't exist.

Well, no. Great historians like Will Durant and thinkers and academics like Mortimer Adler, they would say that the life of Christ is the most well-documented life in ancient history. And so Aquinas was correct that every argument against the Christian faith has a rational mistake in it somewhere. Now if all of this deep philosophical jargon sounds a little irrelevant, C.S. Lewis, in his essay, Learning in Wartime, from his wonderful book of essays, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis said this, and it's a somewhat lengthy, but I think it's a very relevant quote, as we together rise to the challenge of 1 Peter 3.15 and always be ready to give an answer. Lewis said this, quote, if all the world were Christian, it might not matter if we pursued education. But as it is, said Lewis, a cultural life will exist outside the church, whether it exists inside the church or not.

Now listen to what C.S. Lewis said nearly 70 years ago. To be ignorant and simple now, not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground, would be like throwing down our weapons and betray our less educated brethren who have, under God, no defense against the intellectual attacks of the heathen but us. Good philosophy must exist if for no other reason because bad philosophy must be answered.

The cool intellect, said Lewis, must work not only against the cool intellect on the other side, but against the muddy heathen mysticisms which deny intellect altogether. Now listen to this. If ever there were a call to action, this is why we're doing this, folks. This is why we're teaching the children. We're trying to woke-proof America. This is why I meet with pastors and adult leaders and college students. I met with a college student yesterday trying to reach their peers.

C.S. Lewis said, and I think it's so true, quote, the learned life is then for some a duty, end of quote. Now what am I saying? We're living in a battle of world views. Last session we talked about Martin Heidegger, that I really, I see him quoted all the time. Heidegger talked about deconstructing everything and then, quote, building back better. Where have you heard that before?

Build back better. And Heidegger was a philosopher. He died in 1976. And he said, look, everything must be your personal interpretation.

The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, he died in 1951. He said, words don't have meaning. Reality is fluid.

Everything means what you say it means, which is false. It's very Wittgensteinian when people say, well, gender is fluid. And then we talked about really the philosophers of the critical movement, Derrida and Foucault, who basically said there are the oppressed and the oppressors. And wokeness and critical theory says, look, whoever's in authority is the oppressor and you are the victim. Just this idea that you are inherently victimized and therefore you can live whatever you want to live. That's like the lie of the serpent in the garden who told Adam and Eve, look, God is withholding things from you because God knows your eyes will be opened.

Now here is my concluding thought, and we'll have to pick this up next time. Look, wokeness, it's not concrete. It's just this fluid amorphous nothingness that reality is whatever anybody says it is. No, reality is what God has revealed to us. Truth is not subjective opinion, but objective reality. And nowadays, if you even try to talk about God, there are certain segments of our population, they get triggered. Things can't just be coherently discussed or consistently lived. People get triggered and angry. And they say, well, if you say there's truth, that's microaggression. Now here's the thing, as our constitutional rights hang in the balance, all of this wokeness, this subjectivism, this deconstructivism, this critical theory, it cannot be lived consistently or legislated justly.

If you're talking about trans rights, well then you're going to have to talk about compelled enforced speech where people are just legally bludgeoned to acquiesce to things they know aren't true. It's like a boy said last summer in Georgia. He asked a middle schooler in front of 150 kids, he said, does the Bible speak about transgenderism? And I said, well, yes, it does.

It says God only made males and females, Genesis 1 26 and 27. And you could have heard a pin drop. I said, why do you ask? He said, well, because in school we're practically beaten over the head with it. See wokeness, it can't be justly implemented because it isn't true.

Kids have to be, as the young man said, quote, beaten over the head with it. Now, as I close, let's turn our attention back to the one who said his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Let's turn back to the one in John 17 17, Jesus, who said God's word is truth and God's word will sanctify and save. Folks, I'm not saying this is easy. I'm just saying it's right.

I'm not saying it's always convenient. I'm just saying we must do it. And folks, in a battle for truth, which is really the battle for the souls of people, and frankly, the struggle for the preservation of our constitutional republic, each and every one of us, myself included, you, me, all of us, by the call of God and the need of the hour, may the Spirit of the Lord embolden us to stand for truth. 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 alexmcfarland P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404, or by calling 1-877-YES-GOD-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarland Show.