How Can Pastors and Churches Present the Truth and Impact the Public Arena?

Get ready. It's one of America's most important, influential, and respected voices on cultural and political issues. An apologist, Christian political advocate and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes.

Welcome to Christian Perspective. I'm Chris Hughes and I'm so thankful that you choose to listen to us here each and every day on your favorite radio station across the country. Don't forget that later today this show will be released in podcast format so you can share it with your friends and family on social media.

And you're going to want to do that because we have a great guest today. Before we get ready to introduce him, I want to thank our host sponsors, the Citizens for America Foundation. Citizens for America, we work to educate and train Christians to develop a biblical worldview. And once you have that biblical worldview, we want you to take it not only into your everyday life, but specifically into the arena of public policy and politics so we can impact the culture for Jesus. If you want to learn more or get on our newsletter list, go to citizensforamericafoundation.com.

That's citizensforamericafoundation.com. You can learn about our work there, but also you can learn about some great events we have coming up. In just a few weeks, we're taking a tour to Washington, D.C. and I'll be leading a group of people in Washington to show you that we really were based on Christian principles here in the United States of America. I'll take you some of the key monuments. You'll see where Bible verses are on buildings all over our nation's capital and learn the history, the true history of the founding of this great nation. We'll take another trip in September, and then if you want to really have fun, on December 26, I'm leading a group to Israel. I'd love to have you join me as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus on a nine-day trip to Israel over the Christmas break so we've made it where the whole family can go. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com to learn more and to sign up. And then, of course, we want to thank our location host, Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, for being the host location of the Christian Perspective Studios right here in Memphis, Tennessee, where you can come to learn more about Jesus, to have a great Christian education at the College of Mid-America and at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

You can learn more at mabts.edu. I've been excited about today for a long time because I'm finally having one of my heroes come on our show. Pastor Evangelist Byron Fox is an evangelist that travels all over the country. And if you all listen to the show, you know that I say very often that I believe one of the primary responsibilities of every Christian is to tell other people about Jesus. It's not just the pastor's job. It's not just the evangelist's job. We are all called to be evangelists. We are all called to share the good news of Jesus Christ and what Jesus has done in our lives with everyone that we meet. And we need to live our lives with an urgency because Jesus could return at any time. My guest today, Evangelist Byron Fox, travels the country telling people about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Brother Byron, thank you so much for joining us on the Christian Perspective today.

Dr. Hughes, it's great to be with you, and I appreciate how much you do. You know, there's an old saying that says, when all is said and done, more is said than done. Well, you and I both do a lot of talking, but praise God, we're both trying to do God's work. Well, we are. And I tell you, we both burn up the roads doing that.

I just had a notice that popped up on my Facebook memories that my truck I've had for a year, and I put 50,000 miles on it in a year. And I think you put more than that, because it seems like just about every day you're at a different place telling people about Jesus. But before we get into your work and then we delve into the world of politics a little bit, do you mind sharing with us, kind of tell our audience who you are, and then in the process, because I always like to ask my guests to share how they came to know Jesus, because we all have a special story of how Jesus touched our lives and changed us radically.

Some have these dramatic experiences where maybe they were drug addicts from prison or whatever. And some of us, like in my case, my parents led me to the Lord at a very early age. But it's dramatic for each of us, and it all gives us a special testimony that we can share with other people, because if we pray and ask God, the Bible says if we ask God to send people, He'll send people to us to be able to share His good news.

And the story they want to hear is not somebody else's story, but what did God do in our lives, and God will use that to miraculously touch their lives, I believe, as well as the prodding of the Holy Spirit. So tell our audience who you are and then how you came to know Jesus. Oh yes, I'm happy to share my gospel testimony. I'm a lifetime Virginian. I live in Virginia right now. In fact, I live in the very city that I was born in, Newport, Virginia. I'm a full-time evangelist.

Yes, I've been in over 60 cities already this year. Every year it's about 120 to 135 different cities preaching the gospel, seeing people saved. The gospel still works. The gospel is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And you can't give the gospel to the wrong person. Jesus died for all.

Brother Hughes, when I was just a boy, our family did not go to church. And in Hampton, Virginia, the city right beside Newport News, in Hampton, Virginia, 12 churches got a burden to reach everybody in the community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so they worked together on what they called a crusade, a gospel crusade. They went door to door telling folks about the Lord, inviting them to a special six-night meeting that was going to take place in the local baseball stadium. There's going to be good weather.

It's going to be held in the baseball stadium. If not, they had another building that would move inside. So they came by our house, and they implored us to come. We did not go on night one, night two, night three, but on night four of the meeting, I was there in the baseball stadium, and the preacher was up preaching.

And he preached that night an entire message. Brother Hughes, he preached an entire sermon on the topic of hell. And I'm an eight-year-old boy, and I've heard the word hell used as a curse word.

I've heard a lot of curse words. But that night, I learned from the Bible about the place of hell. And the only reliable source of information that's true, the only reliable source of information about hell, is the Bible.

Well, I knew it was true. I wanted to be saved that night. But for whatever reason, I did not go forward and receive Christ.

But I went home scared, scared that I'd die and go to hell. By the grace of God, I was in the meeting the next night, and the preacher that night preached an entire sermon on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I learned that Jesus was God's son. I didn't know that. I learned that Jesus loved me.

I didn't know that. I learned why he died on the cross. He wasn't dying for his sin, no, he was dying for my sin.

It's in the whole world. They buried Jesus, and three days later, he came back to life. They called it the resurrection, and they gave an invitation and said, Do you want to be saved? Boy, I wanted to be saved, and I went forward. I was with him because it was the best news I'd ever heard in my life. I learned that Jesus died for me. I learned he loved me.

For God so loved the world, that included me. And that night, I happily received Christ as my Savior. A few days later, I got a letter from the evangelist saying, You need to go to Grace Baptist Church. Well, that church was about three blocks away from the apartment we lived in. So I began walking to that church.

I'll tell you something, Brother Hughes. That church loved me, a little eight-year-old boy who had never been to church. I began attending Sunday school.

We had training in those days. I went to training union, I went to Sunday school, morning service, evening service, Wednesday night service. I went to all the services. I walked there, and that church invested in me. I got baptized there. I entered a call to ministry there. I headed out to Bible college from that church. Praise God for the local church. And all across America, truth has fallen in the streets.

Yes, I understand that. But I'll tell you, God still has His people, just like you, Brother Hughes, that is spreading the truth from the Bible and telling folk about our risen Savior who can save anyone. There's no one listening to this broadcast who cannot be saved.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So after that, Brother Hughes, I served 11 years at a church in Hampton, Virginia, as the assistant pastor. And Brother Hughes, let me tell you, that meant I got to cut the grass, I got to pull the poison ivy, I got to clean the carpets, got to change the oil on the vehicles.

You know what I'm saying? Yes, sir. But every way, helping the church, they had me leading singing, they sent me out soul winning. I got to preach a little bit, got to work with the choir, and got a broad education in ministry. Had a wonderful pastor, a glorious pastor. I mean, could really preach the word of God. He's in heaven now. But so much of ministry. I got some at Bible college. Those first 11 years serving at Bethel Baptist Church in Hampton, Virginia.

There's no price tag I could put on that. And so then from there, I knew God launched me into this thing called evangelism. And now for 29 years, I've been crisscrossing America and a few countries in the world. And I'm seeing people saved, I'm seeing people on fire for God. You know, the news, they paint a pretty gloomy picture of America. And a lot of that's true, I understand that. But Brother, I'm seeing young people receive Christ and answer the call to ministry. I'm seeing what is good things taking place in churches, church plants being established. So Brother Hughes, good things are happening. The gospel has not lost its power to save.

So that's a little overview. I get to do a lot of things. Well, you know, I love what you just said about the gospel not losing its power. And like you, I travel to churches across the country. And one thing that breaks my heart is so many times today, pastors do not give an intentional invitation to people to come to know Jesus Christ. And I don't know about you, but I never want to preach. I mean, even if I'm in a church talking about a political issue or a policy issue, I always want people to have the opportunity to make a decision to follow Jesus.

Because even though our mission at Citizens for America is to impact the culture for Jesus, there's no greater way to impact the culture for Jesus than to lead the culture to Jesus. And I just wish that more pastors would be intentional in trying to lead people to Jesus today. I loved your story and you talked about, we're going to have to take a break, but you talked about that first message you went to at that revival meeting in the baseball field, how the pastor preached on hell. And boy, I wish more preachers talked about hell today. So many pastors in America avoid so many topics in the Bible and hell is one that very few address anymore. But I think we need to be talking a lot about hell. And part of the reason I say, well, we don't want to scare anybody by talking about hell. Well, sometimes we need to be scared.

I mean, I want to be scared, brother. I don't want to spend an eternity in hell and damnation. And a lot of people in America today have never heard of hell. A lot of them don't believe in hell.

And you might not believe it if you listen today, but listen to me, I will offend you. If you don't believe in it, you're going there. So you need to get your life straight because the Bible talks about it, says it's a real place. And pastors, you don't need to avoid preaching the subject of hell. If it scares somebody, it needs to because they don't need to spend an eternity there. And because of that message, if you hadn't heard that message, brother, you might not be preaching the word today.

That's exactly right. When people tell me that they want to go to hell, because I've had that even said to me, I know one of two things that either they're lying or they don't know what hell is like. And Jesus talked 13 times more about hell than he did about heaven. So yes, preachers who never mentioned hell, they're doing a disservice to their congregations.

They sure are. Well folks, we're talking to Evangelist Byron Fox. He traveled the country sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. We're going to take a commercial break when we come back. We're going to learn more about what he's doing and how he got involved in the political arena. Stick around. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

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For a free transcript, call American Minute at 1-888-USA-WORD. Welcome back to The Christian Perspective. I'm Chris Hughes. My guest today is evangelist Byron Fox, and he travels the world, really all over the world, and particularly all over the United States.

There are not many people that burn up the roads more than me, but he is one of them. He's somewhere just about every day and every night sharing the good news and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he's doing that because he believes that Jesus could return one day soon, and he has an urgency to tell everybody he knows about the saving grace of Jesus. Well, Brother Fox, so you travel the world as an evangelist, but you also work in a different arena. We both have a very good mutual friend who I don't think he's been on since I had the radio show back about a year ago when I started the podcast. He was my first guest, and that's Brother Chad Conley, who is the president of an organization called Faith Wins.

And Chad is a strong Christian believer. He's a good friend of both of us. He's a better friend with you. He won't let me travel and speak with him.

I think he's afraid of me. I'm about to say, brother. But you travel a lot with our good friend Chad Conley, encouraging pastors and Christians to register to vote. What made you get involved in that?

Because so many pastors and evangelists are scared of the world of politics and public policy. What happened to spur you to get involved in that? Well, since I was 18 years old, I've always voted. And I think that I believe that just everybody did it.

I learned everybody doesn't vote. And in fact, it was in October of 2019, I hosted Chad Conley for a little get together with preachers. And I'd been becoming more and more involved, praying with politicians, going to their offices, even talking about policy. But October of 2019, the Holy Spirit called me to work with Chad. I had him there speaking to about 18 of my preacher friends.

It was a rather spontaneous meeting. But during that presentation by brother Conley, he mentioned that there were 82 million evangelicals in America, that only about 14 million were registered to vote. In other words, half of evangelical Christians were not even registered to vote, let alone voting, which was startling to me. And in that little presentation that Chad made, I believe the Holy Spirit called me to work.

A need soon is an assignment given. I could not allow 42 million evangelicals not to be challenged to register and then to exercise their vote. And so I began teaming up with brother Chad. And yeah, we travel a lot together. Just two weeks ago, we were in eight different cities together in three days.

We were burning up the roads. And by the way, back to the gospel, every night service that Chad and I had, every night service that week, we had people saved. We had four saved the first night, six saved the next night, two saved the next night. The gospel fits every meeting, even when it's about the public arena. But there's only one group.

Oh yes, absolutely. And there's only one group of people that ever is interested in raising the level of righteousness in a country, and that's God's people. And if God's people don't raise the level of righteousness in America, it's not going to get done. The people who hate God, they're not trying to raise the level of righteousness. But with you and I, brother Hughes, we're trying to do it. And of course it's God that we're pointing folks to. He's the one with the answers.

I'm just a servant. But yes, God's people must be involved in this arena called politics. In fact, brother Hughes, I have a few people, even a few pastors, that become a little disenchanted with me at times.

Because I'm rather outspoken. And they're like, there's supposed to be this separation of church and state, brother Fox. And you're getting too political on us, brother Fox. And I guess you're no longer in advance, brother Fox.

None of that is true. God himself ordained the home. He ordained the church. And friends, he ordained the government. God himself ordained the government. So it's unthinkable that me and brother Hughes would not be involved in it.

It's inconceivable. God wants his people to be good stewards everywhere, including our influence in the public arena. And so you may as well not try to talk to me about getting out of what I'm doing with God and country efforts, because we're commanded to be salt and light everywhere. And so, brother Hughes, what you're doing is so very, very right. I commend you for all that you're doing. And yoking up with as many comrades that will work together with us as possible, like brother Chad Collins, who's done a magnificent job with Faith Women. Yeah, we all have to work together. And, you know, I was thinking as you were saying how someone asked you if you're not evangelist anymore.

Same with me. For years, I've traveled as an evangelist, preaching around the country, really more than other countries in the United States. And recently a dear friend of mine, who's been a close friend for years, called me and said, What has happened to you? I see that you're involved in trying to change the culture. Why aren't you an evangelist anymore?

Really kind of laid into me. And I had to try to explain to him that the mission hasn't changed. But if we don't impact the culture for Jesus, we're not going to have the right to share the gospel anymore, at least freely. Because they're going to try to control what pastors say, and pastors need to realize they're going to lose the right to openly share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people in this country, in major leadership positions in this country today, who consider the Bible God's word to be hate speech.

And that's where we're headed, as a country, if we don't get involved. And as you said, when God created this world, he put man over his creation, and government is one of the things that God created in this world. And he didn't expect mankind, particularly his church and the followers of Jesus Christ, to just walk away and turn their backs. I'm going to start preaching, I need to be careful here, brother. Go ahead, I'll say amen. So let me ask you, I know the work you do with Faith Winds and our mutual friend Chad Conley, a lot of what y'all do is addressing the issue that you brought about, where there are over 40 million people who profess to be evangelical Christians, who are eligible to vote, but are not registered to vote. So if a pastor is listening, brother, can they have voter registration drives in their church, or is that violating the Constitution? Oh, it doesn't violate the Constitution.

It's a non-partisan deal that we're doing, registering people. We would never tell people who to vote for. That'd violate my conscience.

I would not do that. I believe in soul liberty. Each person is to make their decisions for Christ, and they're going to give an account to God for what they have done.

We're not trying to get a bunch of students, but we're trying to get people to register to vote, and then get them educated on where different people stand on the issues. Because now the life issue has been politicized, but brother, that's a Bible issue. Life comes from God. And then the marriage issue. Marriage with a man and a woman. I did not design marriage. My church did not design marriage. This show, the Christian Perspective on the Truth Network, we didn't design marriage.

God designed marriage. But now if we want God's blessings, we better do things God's way. So we're trying to educate people on Bible issues and where candidates ought to stand on these things. And so we interview candidates. This is primary season, convention season. There's always elections going on, municipal elections.

And that's another thing right there, Brother Hughes. Not just the federal level should we be interested in, but our local board of supervisors and school boards. God's people must be involved everywhere.

Yep, and you're right about that. And Brother Fox, I know you know that there's something called ballot drop-off, where a lot of people vote for president or senate or congress, but when it gets down to school board and city council, it's almost half the people don't vote for those candidates or on issues on a local level. It just amazes me because the people on your school board, one, that's one of the most important positions on the ballot right now with all that's going on in our country.

But those are the people whose kids go to school with your kids, they go to church with you, they eat the restaurants in your community, and we don't know who they are. And it's time for us to find out who's involved in our community and get involved and get particularly in those local elections, because we could have a huge impact just, you know, if two or three churches in your county would turn out the vote. I know you're familiar with this story, Brother, but back in Houston, just a few years ago, there was a woman who was the mayor of Houston, she was a lesbian, and she was directing pastors to submit their sermons to her for approval before Sunday morning. But I don't remember the numbers, but there were three or four churches in town that their membership of adult members was greater each one of those churches than the entire turnout that voted for her in the election. If just one of those churches had turned out their Christian voters, there wouldn't have been a lesbian mayor of the town of Houston. And we have got to engage in this process like you're talking about and get registered to vote and get educated and then turn out to vote.

Well, we've got to take a quick commercial break. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about the registration process, then we'll talk about how churches can impact the public arena. Listeners, we're talking today with Evangelist Byron Fox, who travels the country telling people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he's also very concerned about the future of our nation, and he works with pastors to engage and impact culture for Jesus.

Stick around, we'll be right back with more. The United States of America has a strong Christian heritage, but most Americans don't know the truly important role that God in the Bible played in the founding of this great nation. This June, join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes, for four amazing days in our nation's capital. With Chris, you'll embark on a journey of discovering the hidden secrets of Washington, D.C., and rediscover much of America's forgotten Christian heritage. Your tour will include an up close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries. Learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic, one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception.

Know the truth about the creation of the United States of America, about the faith of the founding fathers, and how Christian principles were used to establish this form of government. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com today and secure your spot to join Chris Hughes in Washington, D.C. this June. This show is brought to you by Generous Joe's, the coffee company with the Christian perspective. This is the answer that Christians and conservatives have been looking for, a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about.

Order your coffee today at shopgenerousjoes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about. The Conservative Baptist Network is a dynamic movement of Southern Baptist pastors, churches, and Christians committed to standing for the sufficiency of God's Word in the face of a culture of compromise. The passion and prayer of the Conservative Baptist Network is that God would help Southern Baptists stay bold for the gospel so that we might see revival in America and the world reached for Christ. Visit our website today at conservativebaptistnetwork.com to learn how you and your church can join and support this exciting movement. Welcome back to Christian Perspective.

I'm Chris Hughes. My guest today is evangelist Byron Fox, and he is such a dear brother and a great hero of the faith and a role model for me. And I tell you, to know him is to love him. He has such a heart for the lost and a burden to tell everybody knows about Jesus Christ. And he loves this country and realizes that Christians need to engage in the public arena. Brother Fox, before the break, we were talking about how you travel with our friend Chad Conley at Faith Winds to encourage pastors to get Christians to register to vote. So, folks, if you're listening, if you're a pastor listening, I encourage you to have a voter registration drive in your church. If you're not a pastor, I encourage you to politely and nicely go meet with your pastor and tell them that you'll do the groundwork. It is so easy to register voters today, and you can go to your local board of elections or supervisor elections and get the material. You can even do it online in most places and just have a table if your pastor will allow in the vestibule or the lobby of your church. And maybe the pastor can be talking about it for weeks in advance or, boy, what I would love, Brother Fox, to probably give us some notes if he needs notes to do it, to preach a sermon on the importance of Christians engaging in the civic arena and then have a voter registration drive afterwards. That is 100 percent legal.

There's nothing illegal about it at all. People can join whatever party they want. But if you've got a pastor who is preaching the Word of God, the whole Word of God, you don't have to tell people how to vote. If the pastor is preaching the Word of God, people are reading the Word of God, and they seek God's guidance, then they're going to know how to vote. But first they've got to get registered. What programs do you all have, Brother, when you meet with pastors and with your partnership with Faith Wins? Are there resources available on the Internet, or how do you encourage people to go about starting to have a voter registration drive if they want to have it in a church?

Yeah, it's very, very easy. FaithWins.us. Right on that website, you can register online. And that's all 50 states can register right online right there. Or you can check your registration. You know, if you've moved or you haven't voted in so long, you want to make sure that it's up to date.

Go to FaithWins.us. And as I traveled the country last year, I did keep track. I personally, with my laptop, used that website to register 150 church members. That's how many last year.

I averaged about three a week as I just traveled. Just me myself, besides whatever the church did. And all together, last year in the state of Virginia, we registered 77,000 church members. In 2021, 77,000 church members got registered in Virginia by our little team.

Across the whole United States is over one million. And did it make a difference in Virginia? Well, yes.

Oh yes. There were some victories in Virginia that was exactly associated with Christians voting the better candidates. The candidates that were closer to the Bible. Virginia still got a long way to go. My beloved state got a long way to go. But we have seen a little bit of progress because God's people have gotten involved. And we need to take that to a much greater level. But every church should have voter registration at least one Sunday a year.

Often you'll need to do it two or three. One of my preacher friends in Tennessee, I called him. I said, I think you ought to have voter registration. He said, all my people are registered. I said, well, you might be surprised. He called me that afternoon and said, I registered over 400 of my churchmen.

Wow. So the bad news, pastor, is you probably got another 400 sitting there. Still haven't registered either. You know, he runs a few thousand. He registered 400 and some church members on a Sunday morning. You know, he said, I'd get up and say, you need to vote. They'd say, amen.

But they weren't even registered. That's incredible. Can you share? I know you're being humble here. I'm going to put you on the spot, if you don't mind.

But a lot of people say, well, you know, why do I need to do this? My vote doesn't count. I'd like you to share a little more specifics, because now we have a governor of Virginia, a lieutenant governor, secretary of state and many others down ballot who were strong, strong Christians. Our new governor of Virginia is a powerful, godly Christian that loves the Lord, that he opens every meeting that he has in state government with prayer. And he would not be in office today had Christians not voted. Can you share a little bit about you shared over 77,000 that your faith wins team registered in Virginia. Tell us what the election results were. And did those Christian voters make a difference?

Oh, absolutely. Governor Yunkin won by about 60,000 votes. Now, our team never endorsed anybody. We never did. However, we we interviewed every candidate that would interview with us. And I remember specifically our team of preachers on the phone the very first time with Mr. Yunkin. And we told him we always like to open this in prayer and and and pray for the candidate. And so we did directly after we did that.

He said, man, it wouldn't be too forward. I'd like to lead in prayer for you preachers. And he led us in prayer.

Well, we made a note of that. And, you know, maybe he's been a con artist. Maybe he's a fraud and just trying to butter us up. You know, you don't know didn't know him too well at that point.

It's kind of watching him. We had a good interview. But Chris, I've I've known him a while now, many, many months and many, many conversations.

And yes, he's a man of prayer. I was at the inauguration. It was freezing January 15th.

It was outside. And I'm texting my wife and I said to my wife, I said, Mr. Yunkin did not have a preacher closing prayer. My wife wrote back, said, well, that's terrible.

I said, well, not really. I said, Mr. Yunkin himself closed inauguration in prayer. And he prayed scripture and prayed in Jesus name. And every time I've been with him, we've had prayer. And brother Chris, if I could say this to my wife, got very, very sick earlier in 2022 with COVID pneumonia. She was in and out of the hospital four times on one of the Saturdays. Mr. Yunkin called me on the phone, which is not totally uncommon.

We talk about once a week. And so the phone call came in. So I stepped outside of my house. Hello, government. He said, well, I've heard your wife is sick. I said, yes.

He said, well, brother Fox, I really didn't call to speak with you. If you'd let me, I'd like to I'd like to talk to your wife. I'd like to I'd like to play with her.

I'd like to read her some Bible. And the governor of Virginia, I took the phone back inside, put him on speaker phone for the next 12 to 15 minutes. He encouraged my wife in the Lord and he did play with her and he did read the Bible to her. And though my wife was feverish and all that, at that point, she was very sick.

I'm telling you, that made a difference. And I don't know too many. Citizens that the governor has called and prayed with them when they're the bad sick, but I can tell you, my wife has had that. And he's got a good testimony of salvation. His wife led him to Christ early on. And you need to hear that testimony. Mrs. Sears has a wonderful testimony for Jesus Christ. Jason Miyares, our attorney general, received Christ when he's a 15 year old boy. They had just preached Revelation chapter three in verse 20. And he received Christ that night as a as a boy at a at a camp, a church camp. He'd taken those kids to church camp. You might see the next attorney general get saved.

Who knows? So, yeah, the church made a difference because all three of those won by very, very small margins. But all three have a good testimony for Jesus Christ. What a powerful testimony.

And just imagine if other elected officials love the Lord like that. And I'm not saying that there aren't any others, but they're the real deal. I just recently had dinner with Lieutenant Governor Winsome. And as you were at that dinner, it was a lunch meeting, I guess. And they're the real deal.

And look at the impact. It was because Christians, because the Church of Jesus Christ, the followers of Jesus Christ registered to vote, got educated and turned out and voted. And Virginia was one of the most liberal states in the country at that time.

A previous governor talking about murdering babies born outside the womb and letting them die. The sin that had prevailed in Virginia. But because Christians got on their knees and begged God for a change and they and they registered to vote and they turned out to vote. We now have godly men and women serving in the three highest positions in the state of Virginia right now. And that same thing, people that are listening, the same thing could happen all over the country if Christians would just get engaged.

And it does make a difference. I mean, you can say what you want, people, and you can say about the church not being involved. But I tell you what, the garbage that was being taught in public schools is now being rained back in in Virginia because we have a godly governor of Virginia who's taking a stand against the filthy sexual education curriculum that was being presented in that state before. He's taking a stand against abortion and for life for babies that were created in God's image in the womb. And so many stand against critical race theory, which is a false religion.

It seeks to divide what Jesus Christ died to unite and so much more. It matters who is in public office and we need to get registered to vote and we need to turn out Christian voters. And this particularly, Brother Fox, this is an important year with midterm elections. It's important that we turn out voters and not just in the United States House and the United States Senate.

And those are very important. But y'all, let me tell you, and I'm coming up on a commercial break here, but Roe v. Wade is about to be overturned and the decision of abortion is going to go back to states. And it is important that Christians, unlike any other time before, get registered to vote and elect godly men and women to the state house and state senate and district and appellate and state supreme courts across this country, because the abortion battle is about to be removed from Washington, D.C. and put in states across this country. And we have got to elect godly men and women to the state house and state senate. And every state this year, our abortion is going to continue to grow. It's not over just because the Supreme Court is going to throw out Roe v. Wade. It's going to the states and we've got to get registered and we've got to vote. Let's take another quick commercial break and come back. Brother Byron, I want you to talk about how pastors and churches can impact the public arena. Y'all stick around.

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Your tour will include an up-close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries. Learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic, one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception. Know the truth about the creation of the United States of America, about the faith of the founding fathers and how Christian principles were used to establish this form of government. Visit CitizensForAmericaFoundation.com today and secure your spot to join Chris Hughes in Washington, D.C. this June. Welcome back to Christian Perspectives, Chris Hughes. My guest today is evangelist Byron Fox.

Brother Fox, I've talked about so many other things. Do you have a website for your ministry? I know you mentioned FaithWins.us. That's FaithWins.us for the work you do with Brother Chad Conley and registered Christian voters. But if somebody wants to have you come preach at their church, how do they find you?

Byron Fox with two X's now, F-O-X-X, first name Byron, B-Y-R-O-N, ByronFox.com. You can see what I look like. I look better on radio. You think I'm already on TV, brother? I understand completely. Well, I tell you what, if you want to have an evangelist who loves the Lord and you want to see results and see people get saved, then you need to have evangelist Byron Fox come to your community.

You can book him at ByronFox with two X's, B-Y-R-O-N-F-O-X-X.com. Brother Fox, what can pastors and churches do to impact the public arena? Well, we're having lots of God and country rallies.

These are one-night rallies. We'll often have candidates there that will have them stand and we'll introduce their names. We never let them speak, but we have a time of prayer over them.

All candidates, both teams, anybody who wants to come that's running for office. But then we have a time of talking about issues, just like I said a few moments ago. The life issue, that is not a political issue, that is a Bible issue. The marriage issue, Israel, all these are Bible issues. Even the finances of our country, 30 plus trillion dollars in debt is ridiculous. That's not according to the Bible.

The Bible does talk about finances, in fact it's the best financial book in the whole world. But always at these God and country rallies, always, always, always, we have seasons of prayer. We tell them about upcoming election dates, primary dates, convention dates. We educate them in how to get involved in the process, how to become a sworn election officer, how to become a poll watcher. We've got to get involved. All of us should want honest elections.

It should be easy to vote, but hard to cheat. But always at the rallies we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We try to have these at neutral locations. We rent buildings. Ms. Sears, I remember last year, I rented a gigantic flea market building.

We had all the tables out and just had a giant arena as it were. 1400 people showed up and Ms. Sears was there and I called her up on the platform and I said, I'd like for you to tell this crowd how you received Christ as your Savior. And she did. And then I preached John 3 16 and we had 25 people saved that night. Always we have the gospel presented. Last year I led three candidates to Christ during the course of the year. I led several elected officials to Christ during the course of the year.

They're spending time on the phone with these elected officials. There's a number of different senators and House representative folks that I pray with on a regular basis that they want a preacher. They need a preacher. And so often the preachers have been shy about talking with these folks.

No, no. They need preachers and they need Christians. You are singing my song right now when I travel around the country.

I know you do too. I encourage pastors. If you look back at the history of our nation, the Revolutionary War, pastors were leaders in their community.

Today pastors don't get outside their church. You know, sometimes I have to embarrass them. You know, how many of you can name one school board member, one county commissioner, one city council member? Why don't you know who they are? That tells me you're not praying for them. If you don't know their names, you're not praying for them preacher.

And how about this? How about not that you know their name? How many of your elected school board members and county commissioner members and city council members know your name preacher?

How many have your phone number? Because like you said, Brother Fox, most of them don't go to church. A lot of them don't have a pastor, but they got problems just like everybody else. And they need somebody to call once in a while to pray for them. But there are communities all over our country, brother, where there's not a single pastor in that community that has ever communicated with elected officials on a local level, and they wouldn't know what preacher to call if they had to. And we've got to change that, preachers. We've got to get involved in our community. Those men and women need to know about Jesus. And just like Pastor or Evangelist Byron Fox led these elected officials and candidates to Jesus, we can do that in every community across the country.

And imagine the revival we would have if we led elected godly men and women, if we led them to Jesus, the impact that we could have on our culture. I'm sorry, I'm stealing your time. It's starting to freak you again, brother. I apologize for that.

It's exactly right. And there's even been some that have started out almost adversarial with me, that later on when they did have a crisis, they called me. I'm thinking of one in particular that the first several times we communicated, it was adversarial. Then he had a friend about to die, and he had never called me Brother Fox. He'd always just called me Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox. I got the text from him. He said, Brother Fox.

When I read Brother, it got my attention. He said, Brother Fox, my friend is dying. Would you pray? I called him. I said, of course I'm going to pray.

And the relationship changed right there. Now, I still have not seen him saved. He's still a lost man. But we're making progress, Brother Chris. You have to, like I had an old preacher friend, Jack Turner. He told me, you have to build friendship bridges. When you build a friendship bridge, then you earn the right to share the gospel at some point down the road.

We have to do that. While we're still on this subject, you mentioned God and country events that you hold. Something I encourage pastors to do is, even in their own church, have a God and country service. Brother Fox, I don't think you know this about me, but I've actually been elected six times.

So I know what it's like to be a politician as well. Brother, if there is a warm body in the room during election season, we're going to be in that room. So pastors, pick a Sunday night, and if you have a God and country service in your church, or call it whatever you want. If you invite, particularly in a year like this, like election year, if you invite every elected official and every candidate to your church, I've got news for you. Every single one of them will come.

I'm telling you. We need your votes. If you invite us to a room where there are a bunch of bodies, we're going to go to that room. Do exactly what Brother Fox said. You invite them there. Don't let the politician talk. Don't hand them the microphone. You just introduce them. So one, it lets your people in your church get to know, because most of them are probably, like you pastor, have probably never met the elected officials in your community or candidates.

So it allows them to see them. And then preacher, I want to challenge you. You preach the greatest evangelistic message you've ever preached in your life. Because most of them, I'm sad to say, have never been invited to church before. Many of your elected officials are not going to be Christians. And you preach an evangelistic message and give them a chance to accept Jesus Christ.

And then afterwards, go to your fellowship hall and have those ladies in your church that are good cooks cook like my homemade ice cream or just cakes and desserts. And then let the people in your church mingle with those elected officials and candidates. And that'll give them a better idea of who to vote for. But that also opens the door for the Holy Spirit to move in those elected officials' lives. And I challenge y'all to do that in your community. And I don't know if you've seen churches that have done that, Brother Fox, but it works. And the politicians, I'm telling you, we will come because we need to meet as many voters as possible. Our motives might not be good, but get them in the room. They can't leave and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

And do that with all levels of officials. I'm thinking right now of a service that I preach, just like what you're describing, and the sheriff came and four of his deputies. The first man down the aisle to receive Christ that night was the sheriff. In front of his deputies, he received Christ as his savior. And we got him in the new convert program.

And I'll tell you, we can see officials say and begin those relationships that you're talking about. And it also gets our people, not just the preacher involved, but our people involved developing relationships. And it does make a difference. For example, I was in a town last fall, and the town had decided not to have a Christmas parade, but to have a holiday parade. I stopped by the mayor's office. The mayor said, what do you think about us just having holiday parades with a Christmas parade? I said, well, I'm really in favor of a Christmas parade myself. That changed that mayor's mind right there. They went ahead and still had a Christmas parade that year based on the preacher just stopping by to see the mayor. It makes a difference.

It may be just a little incidental things like that do make a difference, you know, as you just stay in the game. Well, we've got to do it. And is there an importance to pastors not only getting to know people in their community, but do they need to preach the whole word of God?

Absolutely. You must preach all of it. The truth has fallen in the streets. And our pulpits have failed America. Pulpits, look preacher, read that Bible passage through about a hundred times.

I don't care if you got a lofty jargon or not, or an alliterated message or not, but get the truth out of that passage and preach it and then relate it, make it applicable to right here and right now in our country. Preacher, please preach all of the Bible. Such an important message because so many pastors, George Barna, who I know you know George, has done some surveys. He does surveys among Christians and said that less than 10% of pastors who claim to be evangelical ever address issues in the culture today, like abortion, homosexuality, transgender, traditional family values. And preacher, it's not political issues. Those are issues of sin. And if you're preaching the whole word of God like Brother Fox is saying, you can't get around it. You've got to address those issues in our culture and come back to Jesus when we do. Evangelist Byron Fox, thank you so much for being with us today. We sure appreciate you coming on The Christian Perspective. Well, God bless you, Brother Hughes. You're doing a great job. Ladies and gentlemen, you want to have a great preacher come to a revival in your town, you need to go to Byron Fox.

That's with two X's. ByronFox.com. If you invite Brother Byron to come to your community, he will preach the whole word of God, and he will give an intentional invitation so people have a chance to come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. If you want to hear what he said again or share it with your pastor, this will be a podcast released later today. Share it on social media with your friends, and thank you for listening on your favorite radio station at this time each and every day. God bless you. Let's take what we learned today, and let's go invite the culture to Jesus. Thank you for listening. The Christian Perspective with Chris Hughes. Learn more about impacting the culture for Jesus. Visit citizensforamericafoundation.com. This is the Truth Network.