Can American Culture Be Renewed?

Can American culture be renewed? That is the topic we'll discuss today on the Christian Worldview Radio program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. Christian Worldview is a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry. Our website is thechristianworldview.org.

And the rest of our contact information will be given throughout today's program. As always, thank you for your notes of encouragement, financial support, and lifting us up in prayer. My 92-year-old mother, who has been a follower of Christ for over 65 years. will often describe how much American culture has declined in her lifetime. With regard to morality and marriage, manners and standards?

Movies And music. Education in communication. and more. She does not say that things were perfect or sinless in the quote good old days. but rather how much the culture has coarsened.

The younger generation has grown up in this stew, so they may not realize all that has changed. And many from the older generation may not discern. the downward trajectory, or actually see it as quote, progress. But the basis for evaluating our society is not human viewpoints. Not even my mother's.

but the fixed standard of God's Word. For example, God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman for life, not two or three people of the same gender. God commands that our speech be truthful and edifying, not marked by obscenity or sensuality. God desires His principles and practices, like prayer and worship and Christ like character, to be venerated rather than dismissed.

So where do we go from here? Can the culture be renewed? Or is that just another attempt? at coercive Christian nationalism. What does it mean for the church to teach and individual Christians to apply the whole counsel of God?

Cal Beisner, founder and president of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, is our guest today. We will discuss what he calls the whole council, a project for cultural renewal. That he will be introducing at Cornwall's upcoming spring conference on May 1st and 2nd in Memphis, Tennessee.

So, we hope you stay with us today to learn how, quote, the whole council of God. from the whole word of God. To the whole people of God is for the whole of life. Let's go straight to the interview with Cal Beissner. Cal, thank you for coming on the Christian Wheel of your Radio program today.

You have been in the program many times over the years, but I thought it would be good for newer listeners to hear about your background, how you became a follower of Christ, and what you do now. I was converted at a Billy Graham Crusade in Anaheim, California in September of 1969. When I was in eighth grade, the Lord just grabbed me through Billy Graham's message, grabbed my father at the very same time. He and I were both converted then. And over a fairly short period after that, a campus crusade for Christ staff members began discipling me.

teaching me to witness to others, just walking up to people, cold turkey, and Starting a conversation and bringing it to Christ, and that just became the passion of my life. Pretty soon, I was known as. the campus preacher at my high school. Along the way, I would always encounter objections to the Christian faith. And so that started me on the habit of always looking for answers to those objections.

That got me on the path to learning a lot of theology, systematic theology, biblical interpretation, church history, historical theology, apologetics, and the like. And I've loved that ever since.

Now, Cal, you and Cornwall Alliance have a conference coming up, your spring conference, called Heaven and Earth. the struggle for faith and science in the public square. You're going to be doing one of the messages titled Whole council. a project for cultural renewal. And I just want to read a couple paragraphs that you had written about this.

project for cultural renewal. You said America is increasingly deeply divided over cultural, political, and moral subjects. many issues about which there once was broad consensus marriage and family, religion and its role in the public square. Sexuality economic order. The reach and legitimacy of government, policing, immigration human life and dignity Foreign relations, national defense, immigration work and leisure, arts and entertainment.

Education, and more have become major culture war flashpoints over the past five, even ten decades. with accelerating disintegration of consensus. One more paragraph. Christians who pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Who are committed to making disciples of all nations by teaching them to obey all that he has commanded?

Who believe that God-breathed Scripture can train men, women, and children in righteousness.

so they are equipped for every good work. should recognize The need for the Church of Jesus Christ to speak knowledgeably, clearly, and confidently. to such issues in a way genuinely shaped by biblical worldview, theology, and ethics. yet few Christians are equipped to do that. Primarily because they have not been taught the whole counsel of God for the from the whole word of God.

to the whole people of God for the whole of life.

So Cal, explain the whole Council project. and your vision for it. In Acts 20, 27, we read that the Apostle Paul, in his farewell to the Ephesian elders, Said that he was innocent of the blood of all men because he had not declined, he had not failed. to preach to them the whole counsel of God. that list of various different Issues, cultural, political, moral issues that you read off at the beginning there.

Those are all things about which, once upon a time, there really was consensus in America. And they've become hot-button culture war issues. on which people take a huge variety of different positions, some of them thoroughly antithetical to each other. What we're concerned about is that so few Christians including even many pastors and educators. are really prepared to apply the scripture to all of those different issues and many more as well.

What we want to do is to encourage people to act in accordance with how we pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. To act according to our understanding of the Great Commission, where Jesus told us that we are supposed to make disciples.

Of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all things that I have commanded you. We're supposed to be acting and speaking in a way that's consistent with our belief that. All scripture is God breathed. And it is profitable for reproof, rebuke, correction, and instruction and righteousness.

So that the man of God can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Are things related to that list that you gave at the very beginning there? Are those things related to good works? Can we do good works related to government, to economics, to arts and media, to sexuality, to immigration, etc.? You bet.

We certainly can. The Bible speaks to every aspect, every sphere of Christian life. And our vision Is to help more and more people to grasp that, to move from a very narrow Individual gospel, the job is to get people to heaven, which is a very important thing. That's absolutely the church's treasure, right? to a much broader properly gospel of the kingdom.

In fact, in the New Testament, gospel is used more frequently related to the kingdom of God than it is to individual salvation.

So, our task is to introduce people to the good news of God's rule and then to explain to them. God's rule, and to show it in our own lives. Kyle Beisner with us today here on the Christian Worldview.

Now, you say that. Christians have not been taught the good news of individual salvation that you were just talking about, the gospel. They have not been taught number two. Elementary Christian doctrines. And number three.

They have not been taught basic Christian ethics, like the Ten Commandments or the summary of the two great commandments: love God and love your neighbor. Why have Christians not been taught these things? Or are they just deficient in fully understanding them? Is this the pastor's fault? Is this just the general disordering that sin causes in a society over time?

And was it different at different times, at earlier times in America, with regards to what Christians knew and believed and lived out? Wow, that's a whole series of questions. Giving you multiple choice there. Right. For one thing, let me preface this by saying this.

We consider all three of those things to be pretty much the basics. We're not getting into the whole council. with just those three things. We're talking real basics there. All I can say is that polling by Barna Research, for instance.

shows us that the vast majority Even of evangelicals who attend church frequently. have little or no understanding of the biblical worldview. and embrace doctrines about salvation, about the person and work of Christ, about the Trinity, about heaven and hell, about all sorts of different things. That are clearly contrary to scripture. That's just very sad, but it's been documented year after year after year now by Barna Research, working along with Ligonier Ministries.

Our concern is first, we need to shore up those basics. And then second, we need to get beyond those. To address all the different spheres, all the different aspects of life. The great Dutch theologian and politician, he was prime minister for a time, Abraham Kuyper, is famous for having said, That there is not one square inch in all the universe over which Christ does not claim. Mine.

That's what we want people to understand, and we want them to understand how the Bible addresses every different aspect of our lives: private and public, spiritual and worldly. It all comes under the Lordship of Christ. Certainly does.

Now, you referenced that passage in Acts chapter 20 where Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian church. He says You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, and with tears, and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you Anything that was profitable in teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Skipping down to verse 25. And now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, Will no longer see my face.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. Verse 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose, or some versions say the whole counsel of God. Again, that's from Acts chapter 20. The objection, Cal, for cultural renewal applying the biblical worldview into every area of life. Could be, or you often hear, well, we just need to prioritize preaching of the gospel, which you and I would totally agree with.

Absolutely. Because doing that, the the trickle-down effect there when people are saved Individual salvation leads to Family transformation in many cases, which leads to church transformation, let's say, and community transformation, and even transformation of the nation. You could also say, some would object and say, well, Jesus in the early church. didn't pursue a kind of external cultural renewal. but focused on the individual and the church.

As you read that passage in Acts, what were Paul's expectations for Christians as to how they were to apply this whole thing? Whole counsel of God. It for sure was for them individually with the gospel, repent and believe the gospel. It for sure was individual. in the church as well.

Outside there, where is the example of how this was permeating into broader society? I would begin by just reminding us all that when Paul said that to the Ephesian elders. Hardly anything in the New Testament existed yet. When Paul spoke of the whole council of God, He was referring back to what we refer to as the Old Testament. And when Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 that all scriptures God breathed, He was referring to the Old Testament.

And so We have to include the Old Testament and everything in it. In our Endeavor to understand God's claim on every different aspect of our lives.

Now, there are some things that have changed in terms of how God deals with society from the Old Testament time when the nation of Israel, the ethnic Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, were specially set aside and distinguished from the Gentiles. But now under the new covenant, we see that that relationship has been expanded. And that indeed always it has been that the true Israel has always been. Those who believe, as Abraham did, whether Jews or Gentiles, In the Old Covenant period, that was largely restricted to the physical descendants of Abraham, but now it is expanded to all Gentiles who believe, and many, many have come to believe. We have to get over the idea that we go only to the New Testament.

That's not what the early Christians did. They went to the Old and New Testaments alike to find out what God requires of us individually and societally. then what I would also answer to that objection is that Individual salvation. Does it mean that? Should.

lead to individual transformation. and to the transformation of the families of those individuals. and to the transformation of the communities, the societies of those individuals. But that doesn't happen automatically and it doesn't happen without the input Of, as we put it, the whole counsel of God from the whole word of God. to the whole people of God for the whole of life.

We need to see what the scriptures teach us about sexuality. We need to see what the scriptures teach us about the image of God and man. about human life. about proper government, about liberty and justice. about social order.

All of those things we can. derive from scripture And we need to do that. How would you distinguish what you're proposing With the whole council of God, having a cultural renewal to what people would associate with Christian nationalism. Our guest Cal Beisner will answer that question after this short break. to tell you about some ministry resources.

You can find links to Cal and the organization he leads, the Cornwall Alliance, along with details of their spring conference on May 1st and 2nd in Memphis, Tennessee, at our website, thechristianworldview.org. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Worldview Radio Program. The classroom and the dorm room students encounter at secular and yes, Christian colleges lead to as many as 50% of students who profess upon entering college to be born-again Christians not saying the same four years later.

So how can students avoid spiritual shipwreck? In my book, University of Destruction, Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus, I give a scouting report on the three pillars of peril in college and provide a game plan to be an overcomer. This would be a meaningful gift for the high school or college students in your life. And there's a free study guide available as well. University of Destruction is soft cover, 176 pages, and retails for $17.

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Our topic today is Can American Culture Be Renewed? And our guest is Cal Beisner, President of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

So Cal, how would you distinguish what you're proposing? With the whole council of God, having a cultural renewal to what people would associate with Christian nationalism. The first problem, of course, and I'm sure you're thoroughly aware of this, is that. There must be a million and one different definitions of Christian nationalism.

Now, if what you're thinking about is the notion that there should be a Christian prince. who is going to rule a nation and force upon it all the basic teachings of Christ and all of that. No, I don't think that that is what this is about at all. In fact, The notion that a prince, a government, should command people what to believe about God. is, I believe, a violation of the First Commandment.

Because the first commandment tells us that we're to have no other God before... Jehovah. But if you're going to allow a prince or anybody else. To command you, not advise you, not to teach you and to work along with you, but to command you. What you must believe about God.

Is to set that person or that government in God's place. That's idolatry, so we don't want that. What we do want. is for Christian lives. to be so transformed And Christian conversation with their neighbors, Christian and non-Christian alike.

to be so transformed that the result is a society that is heavily colored. By the Christian faith, by Christian ethics, by Christian social theory, and so on. This is very much what had been the culture of most of European culture. for the last, oh, from the Middle Ages to the at least the 19th century. And we've strayed far from that.

And so, what we're calling for is really something very similar to what Carl Truman is calling for in his new book. Marvelous book, The Desecration of Man, which is a reconsecration. of man. And of all of man's life. Seeing it all dedicated to God, all submitted to God, This is what we're looking for.

It sounds like, as you talk about this, that you're more focused on persuasion, persuading people rather than coercing them. Absolutely. Which is sometimes what certain extreme more versions of Christian nationalism aim to do. Cal Beisner is our guest today here on the Christian Worldview. Cal, you mentioned Abraham Kuyper.

The word that he used for worldview was life principle. It was like one word. Life principle, basically, the same as worldview. You write Worldview or life principle supplies a nation's basic answers to questions like, who are we? What is justice?

What is authority for? What are its limits? What is the good life? A nation's life principle or worldview gives it a distinctive way of understanding sovereignty. Liberty.

social order and culture. Christian, modernist, postmodernist, secular, liberal, Marxist, revolutionary, and other principles yield starkly different national character. In institutional patterns. And I think that's what we're feeling and seeing here in the United States today. And then you go on to say the process of shifting From having a Christian life principle or Christian worldview.

away from that inevitably leads to conflict among various groups, and when the shifts are comprehensive and fundamental enough, They can cause complete societal breakdown. Cal, do you think we're approaching a kind of societal breakdown here in the United States? And how can there be Peace and cohesion, you know, considering what our culture is like right now. And what you're proposing in the the whole council project When the sides are so fundamentally and diametrically opposed to one another. You have a let's just say a broadly Christian side, and I use that term kind of broadly, those with basically a Christian worldview.

Maybe not perfectly doctrinally sound, but more of a Christian worldview, objective truth and so forth, that there is a God and so forth, versus the other side who's humanistic, completely man-centered. Man is a source of truth, whether they're religious or secular.

So there's a big divide there. That is currently in operation in this country. You can feel it and see it everywhere. Yes. Is the societal breakdown almost inevitable at this point, or how do we avoid that?

In a universe governed by the omnipotent God. nothing is inevitable but what he plans.

So I certainly wouldn't say that this societal breakdown is inevitable. But I would say that unless God sends revival, Unless we see A huge and broad repentance Starting in our churches. And then moving out from there to the rest of society. unless we see this, I think we are bound. For the return to paganism.

the return to the the sort of life that people endured prior to the really strong Influence of Christianity in Western civilization. I'll give you one example of that kind of thing. in no ancient culture. Not Egypt, not Babylon, not Greece, not Rome, not ancient China, not ancient India, not anywhere. in no ancient culture.

Did women Have Respect. and rights similar to the rights of men. And in fact, in most of those cultures, it was routine. to see women as existing just basically for the pleasure of men. Rape was widespread and generally not condemned.

Adultery for men, for husbands, was fine, not for wives. They were supposed to be faithful. The treatment. Of people was basically as if they were not persons, they were just things. There was objectification.

That's not the kind of life that we are all accustomed to. But it is the kind of life that the vast majority of humanity outside the strong influence. of the Judeo-Christian worldview and ethic. has lived. As the Western civilization abandons that Judeo-Christian ethic and worldview, It is headed back into those very things.

Again, to refer to Carl Truman's book, The Desecration of Man. What we see around us now is not just simply Some libertinism. We don't just simply see that people sin as they've always sinned. What we see now is an intentional celebration Of the violation of all the laws that have been thought to be God's laws. The reason for this is that secular culture has dispensed with God and embraced atheism, But having done that, as Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out in his story of the madman, Having done that, we Once you get rid of God, You have to take his place somehow, so you have to act as if you're God, which means you impose your own rules, but they can't be God's rules because those are the very ones that you protested against.

And so Instead of just deviating You have to actually celebrate your deviation. That's what we see, for instance, in the LGBTQIA plus movement. It's what we see in shout your abortion. It's what we see in the notion of body counts. How many people can I count that I've had sex with?

This is not just Typical falling short of the intended standard. It is an intentional, celebratory flight. against that standard. That's what we have going on around us right now. And apart from revival, I think that's going to prevail.

That's why I'm involved in several different groups that pray daily together for revival. Our great desire is to see the Holy Spirit poured out so that the preaching of the Word of God brings about millions of conversions and much repentance among those already converted so that we see a new transformation of our culture. That is so well said, and I think so biblical that that really is the way the culture can be renewed is through widespread revival. And so, praying for that is the most important thing to do. And then, as you're saying, some of the actions we can take can be used by God to work toward that end.

Knowing that he controls the outcome is what we are called to do. Cal Beisner with us today here on the Christian Worldview.

Now, Cal, I want to talk about some of the messages, the sessions at your spring conference coming up. Again, it's May 1st and 2nd in Memphis, Tennessee. We have links to all the information at our website, thechristianworldview.org. One of the messages I want to ask you about is Patricia Engler from Answers in Genesis is going to speak on Marx is back in green.

So, I was trying to figure out what the title of that message implied. Was it that something to do with the climate change movement that marks being back in green as far as climate change? Or was it about the union that we see between Marxism today and Islam, like in the mayor of New York, Mom Dani? Ha ha ha. Yeah, great question.

Patricia Engler from Answers in Genesis, first of all, let me just say this. I first saw her speak last fall and it was one of the most electrifying lectures I've ever seen in my life. You know, you can read the green both ways, really. Partly, and the main thing that was in our mind when we asked her about this, was. How so much of the Marxist socialist movement has embraced environmentalism.

We can trace that, for example, from the founding of the Green Parties in Europe and North America, and then later on in New Zealand and Australia. Green parties that were founded, most of them, by former members of the Communist Party. who had realized that The judgment of history was Marxism doesn't make people wealthier, it doesn't spread wealth well, It basically keeps people poor. But they were still committed to their Marxism, so how could they sell it to the general public? Uh-huh.

Well, they'll say capitalism obliterates the environment. Capitalism ruins nature.

So we need Marxism to protect nature. Doubt. The historical record is quite different from that. Capitalism's environmental record is much better than Marxism's record is. I discussed that in a booklet of mine called Is Capitalism Bad for the Environment?

The answer is no.

So that's the one side there. But there is the other side too. We associate green with Islam, with the Muslim movement. And an awful lot of Marxists have embraced Islam. That, by the way, is not terribly surprising.

Back in World War II, remember, Nazism stood for National Socialism, right? National Socialist Workers' Party, the Nazi Party.

So fascism is one version of socialism. And in World War II, Most of the Arab Muslim nations embraced the Nazi cause. They embraced socialism. And since World War II, most of them, most of the time, have sided more with the Soviet Union and then China than with the United States and Western Europe. What we see is Marxism coming back in green both environmentally and in terms of Islam and its quest to conquer the world.

So Patricia is going to be addressing both of those aspects, and I'm very excited to hear what she will say. Yeah, that sounds like a very fascinating message because that really is what's taking place, of course, with the climate change, but you see this movement in America and in Europe. Between the left, Marxists, socialists joining with Islam, and this is going to. Boy, if things don't change, it's going to lead to the fall of Western civilization over there in some of the countries. And who knows what that portends for the future.

Very insightful comments by Cal Beisner, president of the Cornwall Alliance. The good news is, we have one more segment with him after this short break. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to the Christian Worldview Radio Program. We are excited to announce that the Christian Worldview Journal is now available in digital format, meaning that it can be read on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. For the March-April issue, all Christian Worldview partners will be sent both the print version of the journal by mail and a link to the digital version by email.

For future issues, you can choose to receive only one format, print or digital, or continue to receive both. The Christian Worldview Journal is a bi-monthly publication with compelling articles on current events and issues of the faith. It is sent to all Christian Worldview partners as a thank you for their support of this radio ministry. To become a Christian Worldview partner and receive the journal or to update your print and or digital preferences, call us at 188-646-2233, email us at support at thechristianworldview.org or return the resource insert form in the March-April issue. The classroom and the dorm room students encounter at secular and yes, Christian colleges lead to as many as 50% of students who profess upon entering college to be born-again Christians not saying the same four years later.

So how can students avoid spiritual shipwreck? In my book, University of Destruction, Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus, I give a scouting report on the three pillars of peril in college and provide a game plan to be an overcomer. This would be a meaningful gift for the high school or college students in your life. and there's a free study guide available as well. University of Destruction is soft cover, 176 pages, and retails for $17.

For a limited time, you can order signed copies for a donation of any amount to the Christian Worldview. Bulk discounts are also available. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 188-646-2233. Thanks for joining us on The Christian Worldview. I'm David Wheaton.

Today's program and past programs, along with transcripts and short takes, are available at thechristianworldview.org. While there, you can also sign up for our weekly email and the Christian Worldview Journal print publication, order resources, and support the ministry. Our topic today is Can American Culture Be Renewed? And our guest is Cal Beisner, President of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

Cal, another speaker is Christopher Neiswanger. at the conference. He's a pastor at Grace View Presbyterian Church in Mississippi. He's going to be speaking on the evangelistic value of creation stewardship in an age of science.

Now, this has always been the battle here. Kids go to public schools, they hear that evolution is scientific and creationism is not. That climate change is science and caring for the creation is not. Explain the thrust of what Christopher Neiswanger is going to touch on and why this is so important for people to understand. Again, I'll preface that by saying just how excited I am to have Chris with us.

He's not only a pastor and a very, very fine theologian, he's also a constitutional and human rights attorney. Chris is going to be addressing how Christians show what true environmental stewardship is. Which is fulfilling the mandate that we have in Genesis 1:28, to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and everything that moves on the face of the earth. as we show what that properly looks like, which is not rape the planet, pave it all over with Walmart parking lots or something like that, right? It is instead our acting the way God acted in creation, right?

Because we're made in his image. And as his image, we are to represent him in earth.

Well, what do we learn about God's own dominion prior to his creation of mankind? He started with nothing and made everything. He started with darkness and made light. He started with chaos and made order. He started with no life and made life and great abundance of variety of life.

And he told every one of those types of life to be fruitful and multiply and fill its niche in the world. And so our dominion should reflect God's dominion. Which means that we should be making more and more out of less and less, being very, very frugal and good stewards with our resources. We should be gaining more and more understanding of the world, darkness to light. We should be bringing greater order out of lesser order, and we should be enhancing life, not diminishing life.

at the Cornwall Alliance anyway, sort of abbreviate all of this, is to say Our task is to enhance the fruitfulness and the beauty and the safety of the earth for the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors, so that we're addressing the two great commandments, to love God and to love neighbor. I think Chris is going to be helping to explain all of this. And the reason it's so relevant to evangelism. Is that so many people in our public schools, in our universities, have been trained to think that somehow or other Christianity is responsible for environmental degradation. That idea traces back to a 1967 article in Science magazine by a medieval historian named Lynn White, Jr.

In it, he claimed that Jews and Christians had used Genesis 1.28 as an excuse for despoiling the earth. And that was the real root of environmental crisis and degradation.

Now, of course, you can't find that kind of an interpretation of Genesis 1:28 in any rabbinic or Christian commentary on the passage. That was a total misrepresentation. But that essay. has been reprinted in hundreds of anthologies. Used by teachers in environmental science and environmental stewardship, environmental policy.

all over the world. And it has affected the thinking of very many people. That's one reason why some people reject Christianity. If we can help them to see that, no, Christianity says we enhance the fruitfulness, beauty, and safety of the earth, then that objection falls away. Very good.

Now I want to ask you about one more s session at the Conference, Cal, and that's Megan Basham. She's a well-known author, Shepherds for Sale. She wrote how evangelical leaders traded the truth for a leftist agenda. Her session title is A Moses versus Pharaoh Story: How and Why the Cornwall Alliance Defeated Progressive Creation Care and Why It Matters. Just preview briefly her message, Cal, and give us an update on her health because she's really had a battle with, I believe, it's breast cancer, a difficult case of breast cancer.

Started out actually as colon cancer and then there was a bit of a metastasis to some breast tissue, but that seems to be taken care of. The most recent results of the tests are no evidence of disease. It's not identical to completely free. But there's no evidence of disease, and that's just wonderful. We've been praying for her.

Millions of people have been praying for her. And I am delighted about this. Her book, Shepherds for Sale, as you know, I'm sure, documents from solid evidential records, including tax returns, that a large number of well-known evangelical leaders and their ministries. have been co-opted.

Some of them literally bought off for money, paid cash to embrace certain progressive policies in political discourse. Many of them not paid cash, but paid, frankly, in prestige. If you will back this view about LGBTQIA, if you will back this view about abortion, if you will back this view about sexual harassment or sexual abuse and so on. We'll make sure you get published in the New York Times and the Washington Post. and Atlantic magazine and all of these different places will make sure that you get on major cable and network news programs.

That's a very prestigious thing and it really appeals. to pride, She was able to document how that happened in many different ministries. The very first chapter of her book focuses specifically on the evangelical creation care movement. She discusses a number of different organizations involved in that that were co-opted this way, sort of led astray. Probably the most prominent one is called the Evangelical Environmental Network.

She proves that with solid documentation. But she also writes about the Cornball Alliance. She writes how we were not co-opted. We did not sell out, so to speak. We stayed true to scripture, we stayed true to good scientific evidence, true to good economic analysis, and so on.

And then the title of her talk. Actually, it comes from the conclusion of her book, where she returns to talking about us. After quoting A paper issued by one of George Soros's organizations. that sought to explain why After spending scores or hundreds of millions of dollars trying to get evangelicals on the global warming bandwagon. There had been no progress in that whatsoever.

It attributed that fact to the Cornwall Alliance. She said It was like Moses facing Pharaoh. She just simply referred to the fact that our speaking the truth in these things courageously, standing up against. Huge opposition. inspired many other Christians.

to do the same And not to be led down the primrose path, so to speak.

So she's going to be talking about the whole problem. of people being too readily Persuaded. deceived into Compromising their moral, their ethical, their theological commitments. Whether it's by money, by prestige, by being counted as one of the elite, etc. and the importance of our remaining steadfast in the faith, no matter what.

Well, I can second what she said. We have known you, Cal, and your organization, the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, for a couple of decades at least now. And we've just watched you remain rock solid throughout that time, always look to what true science, true research, not kind of. hoodwinked research and not just Thinking of the worldview of the day on these issues. To me, you're the go-to organization.

If you want to get biblical, truthful views on the issue of. The creation, but other issues beyond that, like economics and other things that you have worked hard on as well.

So, we so appreciate you for that. For people listening today, maybe even pastors and elders of churches, what is your exhortation. for pastors and regular Christians. to better, let's say, teach and live out Or learn the whole counsel of God on issues like you've mentioned today, many, many different issues. It touches on everything: economics, education.

immigration, war, you name it. marriage and family, all these different things. What's your exhortation that Christians can do better? In this cultural renewal. project.

I would take it from two verses by the Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5, 21. Test all things, hold fast what is good. We have to not just be readily led along by the latest fad, the latest seemingly persuasive argument. We have to put every claim up against scripture. And let Scripture be the judge.

That would be the first part. And the second part follows from that. In Second Corinthians 10:5, the Apostle Paul tells us to. Take every thought captive. to the obedience of Christ.

That's our challenge. This is spiritual warfare. And we need to recognize that the devil doesn't just attack us about the meaning of The gospel that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again from the dead, and that's the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans chapter 1. He attacks us at every different part of our lives.

And that's why we so need the whole counsel of God from the whole word of God. to the whole people of God for the whole of life.

So that's where we're going. Last question, Cal. How will we know when progress is being made? To cultural renewal? What will that look like where we can say we're on the right track?

Things are going the right direction. More of the same, please.

Well, some fairly simple ways would be increased attendance at Bible preaching, Bible teaching churches. increased educational ministry at those churches, I would so love to see a return to Sunday evening services and Wednesday or some midweek services. If the public school system or other schools are going to have students. For about six or seven hours a day, five days a week.

So we're looking at 30, 30, you know, 40 hours a week that they have students. Why anybody thinks that one sermon on a Sunday morning is going to mean enough to counterbalance that I cannot fathom. I think we would look forward to much more educational ministry by our churches, far more Christians choosing to either educate their own children or send them to Christian schools. Rather than to Pharaoh's Academy, those state schools. Who in his right mind ever thought it made any sense whatsoever to entrust to the government the shaping of the minds of the people by whose consent it's supposed to govern?

If government gets to tell you what to think, consent becomes utterly meaningless.

So I would say that a tremendous rise in Christian schooling will be a part of this. I'd also suggest that we would be starting to see a greater change in sexual activity. Faithfulness before marriage, faithfulness during marriage. We would see a decline in abortion around us. We would see a decline in all kinds of crime around us.

We would also, I believe, see a shrinking of government. Our governments have come to rule more and more of our lives partly because we wouldn't rule ourselves. One teacher I knew used to say, Are you going to be self-ruled? Or will you need a ruler? And he was partly referring to a ruler with which you might get spanked as a little child, but more importantly, to an oppressive government ruler.

So we'd see those sorts of things in a sort of a more technical way. The results of the Barna research polling. Would see less and less heresy, less and less falsehood in the beliefs. of people who claim to be evangelical, born-again, church-going Christians. we would see greater and greater adherence.

to biblical worldview, biblical theology, biblical ethics. as they're revealed to us in Scripture. That would be a great day if we start moving toward that and Be much more honoring to God as a society.

So, thank you, Cal, for all you're doing with the Cornwall Alliance. for the stewardship of creation to move in that direction. And we're looking forward to hearing how the conference goes. And thank you for your testimony to Christ and over your life and ministry. And thank you for coming on the program today.

All of God's best and grace to you. Thank you very much, David. God's best to you as well. We highly recommend that you get connected with the Cornwall Alliance, especially for issues related to the environment, economics. And how the whole counsel of God applies to all the various issues of life as we discussed today.

There will be video and audio of their spring conference on May 1st and 2nd. Go to cornwallalliance.org to find out more. I hope you notice that the cultural renewal Cal is talking about isn't top-down political per se. but rather bottom up spiritual, that starts with the Church grounding Christians in sound doctrine and how the Word of God applies to all the various areas of life that are commonly disconnected from a Biblical worldview. When Christians don't connect how God's Word speaks to all these issues, They are easily persuaded by progressive Christianity, where the arguments sound Christian and feel good.

but are way off base and harm people. Pastors must disciple their congregations on Sunday and throughout the week. is part of the Great Commission. To go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

The Great Commission starts with evangelism, but doesn't end there. It's about making disciples, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded us. Which is the whole counsel of God and how it applies to the whole of life. Thank you for joining us today in the Christian Worldview and for your support of this non-profit. radio ministry.

Until next time, think biblically. Live accordingly and stand firm. The mission of the Christian worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 188-646-2233.

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