Kanye West and the Parable of the Soils

Kanye West and the Parable of the Soils. That is what we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and also to share the good news, the gospel, that all people can be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and our website is thechristianworldview.org. Well, thanks for joining us for another edition of the Christian Real View as we discuss Kanye West and the Parable of the Soils.

Start with a quote today. I was just under the weight of my sin and I was being convicted that I was running from God and I knew I needed to make things right, so I came to Christ. I came out of darkness into the light. Now, most people who heard that quote wouldn't think it would be attributed to rapper Kanye West, one of the best-selling musicians of all time, especially considering Kanye's sinful words and deeds in the past and his high-profile marriage to reality star Kim Kardashian. But his professed conversion to faith in Christ and his traveling what they call Sunday services have garnered all kinds of media attention recently, as has his just-released album entitled Jesus is King, which debuted again at number one on the music charts. Now, many are responding to his claims of faith with skepticism, others with confirmation and gladness for his conversion. So what are we to make of this high-profile celebrity's profession of faith? So today in the Christian Real View, we will discuss the reported conversion of Kanye West, discussing the various responses to the gospel and interpreting this and understanding this in Jesus' Parable of the Soils in Matthew 13. Now, you might think this is a bit of an unusual topic for the Christian Real View to be discussing the professed conversion of a high-profile celebrity, but actually, I think there's a lot of lessons here for Christians to have a sharper biblical worldview in this story. There's been heavy news coverage of this.

It's almost been unavoidable, especially with the release of this new album he has. Christians are talking about this all over Christian media as well. But I think, as I mentioned, there are lessons here to learn about the character of genuine saving faith and the cost of following Christ. And so we'll try to pull some of those out of this story today on Kanye West. I want to give you an overview of who Kanye West is. I went to Wikipedia just to find some general background on him. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Chicago. He's 42 years old. He's an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer.

His music has spanned a broad range of styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influence, including hip hop, soul, electro, indie rock, industrial, and gospel. His parents were divorced when he was just three years old, and he moved with his mother to Chicago. His mother's name is Dr. Donda West. She was a professor of English at Clark Atlanta University and the chair of the English Department of Chicago State University. His father was actually a member of the Black Panthers, but then got into some sort of Christian family counseling.

I'm not sure exactly what that is, but that's what it was stated to be. He came from a middle class background. He is among the most critically acclaimed musicians of the 21st century. One of the best selling musical artists of all time with over 140 million records sold worldwide. He has won a total of 21 Grammy Music Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time. Time Magazine named him one of the most 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2015. All of his studio albums have gone platinum, and he holds the record for having the most consecutive studio albums to debut at number one on the Billboard 200. And he's worth an estimated 250 million dollars.

That's a quarter of a billion dollars. Goes on to say that his outspoken views and life outside of music have received significant media attention. He's a practicing Christian, Wikipedia says, and his religious views have garnered widespread curiosity.

The Christianity, by the way, all came this year. He has been a frequent source of controversy for his conduct at award shows on social media and in other public settings, as well as his comments on the music and fashion industries, the U.S. politics and the issue of race. His marriage to television personality, Kim Kardashian, has also been a source of substantial media attention.

He has four children with Kim Kardashian on January 6th this year, 2019. He started his weekly Sunday services orchestration, which is like a traveling Sunday service, which includes soul variations of both of both West and other songs attended by multiple celebrities. Other things he's known for is being a supporter of Donald Trump.

And he has this reputation within his music, at least his past music, not this album, but previous album as being exceedingly vulgar, narcissistic, demeaning to women, drug use, erratic behavior. This is who Kanye West was until this year. Then the conversion story go from his background to his conversion story from Faith Wire. Starts out by saying that Adam Tyson, who's a senior pastor of Placerita Bible Church in Santa Clarita, California, who is a, by the way, a master's seminary graduate. That's John MacArthur's seminary out in California.

This church is also affiliated with John MacArthur's church has started making appearances. This Adam Tyson, the pastor at West's eye catching Sunday service events across the country where he shared an unfiltered gospel message. This is Adam Tyson, the pastor, while his presence on the stage is new, Tyson has been working with West Kanye West for a while now. The California based pastor recently talked with Billy Halliwell on the Pure Flix podcast about the entertainment moguls newly revealed faith and what it's been like to work alongside the celebrity who grew up around Christianity and whose father, a former Black Panther, became a faith based marriage counselor.

Kanye would say he knew about the things of God. This is Tyson, the pastor, talking. He said he was running from God. The first time I talked to him the first Sunday in June of this year, he told me, quote, I got radically saved five weeks ago.

I said, Kanye, what happened five weeks ago? He said, I was just under the weight of my sin and I was being convicted that I was running from God and I knew I needed to make things right. So I came to Christ. I came out of darkness into the light.

And just as an aside, that's a first good sign here. Any faith story that he just made a profession of faith that he's a he's a believer that doesn't include the fact that I went from being someone practicing sin, doesn't mention someone's sin, is probably not true conversion. Listen to faith stories. If the faith stories about why I started going to church or I became a better person, that that's probably not a true conversion, because ultimately, when you talk about being saved or born again, you are being saved from your sin.

And so if there's no recognition and no realization or statement that sin was taking me in the wrong direction to hell, if it hadn't been repented of and faith hadn't been put in Christ to atone for my sin, probably not a true conversion. So there are some good signs right there in his profession talking about his sin. Story goes on to say, Tyson, again, the pastor who's been helping him, who leads a church of about 400 congregants, said West quietly attended his church two times in May, slipping in and slipping out without much attention drawn toward him. When West returned a third time in early June, though, he waited in the back for the opportunity to talk with Pastor Tyson, who told Halliwell, the interviewer here, that he and the rapper had a 15-minute conversation at the end of the service. After that, Pastor Adam Tyson and West began meeting together on a weekly basis.

Their first meeting, Tyson recalled, lasted a few hours. Quote, I spent about three hours just going through the gospel, making sure he understands clearly about the atonement of Jesus Christ, that God is holy, that we are sinners, that Christ came to die in the place of sinners, and that by repenting and believing in Christ, we can have eternal life, the pastor remembered. And West was like, hey, man, I told you, I've been radically saved.

I believe that message and I want to get that message out to the world, West responded. Now, just notice the way the pastor described the gospel. He said, I want to make sure he understood clearly about the atonement of Jesus Christ, that God is holy, starts with God, who God is, what he expects. He's your creator and he's your sustainer.

He's holy. He can't tolerate your sin. Point two, you're a sinner.

You're alienated from God. Point three, Christ came to die in the place of sinners, the substitutionary atonement of Christ, that you don't have to pay the penalty for your own sin. Jesus came to offer his life to satisfy God's wrath and justice over your sin, to take the punishment you deserved. And then finally, what's the response to those three things?

Number four, you need to repent of your sin and believe in him, in what he did for you on the cross, and you can have eternal life. The pastor explained the gospel very, very well. And then Kanye made a profession. He said, I believe that message and I want to get that message out to the world.

Kanye West was on the Jimmy Kimmel program. And again, here he is making a profession of his faith in Christ. Do you feel born again, Kanye? Would you consider yourself to be a Christian music artist now? I'm just a Christian everything.

Okay, so in a big forum like that and late night television, he's claiming to be a Christian everything. He also talked about how his change and what he's doing, everything is geared toward now towards helping the church. We're praying for the answer in God's time for me to be able to work only for the church. That, you want to say my 20 year vision?

That's my 20 year vision. Everything that I do is for the church, even designing a shoe for the church, even all the shoe names. Our shoe names be like John 3 16 said 350s. Now everything is for now.

Everything is for the church. That's a vision that I that I have to be able to be an innovator and a Christian innovator, Christian innovator. Okay, that's Kanye West.

In the interview with Zane Lowe, you can watch some of these online. Romans 10 says, If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's saying if it's a true belief in your heart, not trusting anything else but Christ. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. So certainly Kanye West has professed faith in Christ, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a true genuine saving faith. Only God knows his heart.

We'll get into that a little bit more today. The article continues by saying, Soon thereafter, this pastor Tyson started leading a Bible study every Tuesday night. Or in addition to West, anywhere from 20 to 50 people would attend. Tyson soon learned West had purchased a ranch in Wyoming.

So he figured their time together had come to an end, but he was wrong. West was eager to continue learning scripture and he knew he needed discipleship this early in his faith journey. The rapper began flying the pastor out to Wyoming every Tuesday so he could continue their weekly gatherings. West has been flying Tyson to Wyoming for the last four weeks.

I don't think that's necessarily a great thing for the pastor to be taken away from his church, but maybe this is just for a short time just to help a guy who was early on in his faith here. He's so excited about studying the Bible, Tyson said, How can you say no? For those who are skeptical or unbelieving, Tyson essentially said, It's important to take West just like we would with anyone at his word. Until he offers a reason to not believe he's been transformed by the gospel, there's no reason to doubt his faith.

In addition, Tyson said he's seeing a lot of fruit in West's life. Okay, we're coming up to our first break of the day here on The Christian Rule View. We'll come back and talk about how the parable of the soils gives us context for understanding the different ways that the gospel is responded to. We're also going to tell you about this month is the five-year anniversary of the release of My Boy Ben.

We have something very exciting going on right now. We'll tell you about that when we return to The Christian Rule View right after this. In our online store, we have a wide range of resources for all ages, adult and children's books and DVDs, Bibles and devotionals, unique gifts and more. So browse our store at thechristianworldview.org and find enriching resources for yourself, family, friends, small group or church. You can also order by calling our office toll-free at 1-888-646-2233.

That's 1-888-646-2233. Or visit thechristianworldview.org. Social justice is a gospel issue. This has become the mantra of many evangelicals. Rectifying perceived inequities of race, gender, sexuality, poverty, immigration, amongst others, is considered a top priority. But what exactly is social justice? Is working for social justice a biblical mandate, an application of the gospel? Cal Beissner has written an insightful booklet entitled Social Justice, How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. Also included in this revised 44-page booklet is a copy of the just released Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel. You can order this social justice booklet for a donation of any amount to The Christian Rule View. Go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233.

Or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. We're talking today in The Christian World View about Kanye West and the parable of the soils. Hearing the news about the conversion to faith in Christ of the rapper Kanye West. And as I mentioned before the break, this month in November of 2014, that would be five years ago, was the release of My Boy Ben, a story of love, loss, and grace. That was my most recent book. And in light of that fifth year anniversary, we decided to do an internet and social media campaign. Because we believe that there's a lot of people out there who have never even heard of the book. I know many in our audience have, of course, and have read it and so forth.

But we really want to reach into the social media world, which we didn't do much of originally. And that's a great place to share about this book and so forth. We have a new website, myboyben.com, that we're going to be driving people to read the book.

We believe in the book from a standpoint of we want people to hear not only the dog story, and about family, and my background, and all the different things, the relationships in the book. That's what the book's about. It's the fact that our relationships and our experience, they shape our lives for every person listening today. And that really is the story of My Boy Ben. How the journey with Ben, there was that, but also all the relationships that surrounded us with family, and with friends, and my parents, and with Brody, who I would eventually marry.

Those are all part of this bigger story that shows what Romans 8.28 says, that God causes all things to work together for good, even in the most difficult, hardest trials of life. So we just really encourage you, if you haven't read the book, to order a copy. We're offering it right now. We're matching Amazon's price. We're offering free shipping for a limited time. The only place you can get it signed and personalized is at myboyben.com.

And so you can go there to do that. We also have it in an e-book, which has 70 pictures with it. So you can get it in either format hardcover or e-book. But just encourage you, if you've read it, just asking you to share that with someone else. Maybe go to the Facebook page for My Boy Ben, or go there, tell someone about it, especially coming into the Christmas season to make a good gift, and just help us get the word out about the book and the message that it has. And we would very, very much appreciate that.

Again, the website is just the title of the book, myboyben.com. Okay, back to the topic for the day, Kanye West and the Parable of the Soil. So in the first segment, we talked about his profession of faith, and we heard him talk about it.

And so this has been big news. The Christian community is all a-Twitter about this, no pun intended, Twitter. You know, Kanye's a Christian. He's now one of us. And sometimes when I hear Christians say that, it's sort of like, well, we don't have to feel so uncool anymore. You know what?

That's not the case. Christians are the most privileged, blessed, on the inside, understand the world of anyone, if you're a true Bible-believing, born-again Christian. We're not on the outside at all.

We're not uncool. The world is going down the wrong road, so let's never think that about being a follower of Christ. Now, other people, when they hear about Kanye West, they're doubtful. I read one commenter to one of the articles that was saying, Kanye is clowning everyone. Don't be Kanye's clown. He's a lying devil. He loves serving Satan, and so does his wife.

Talk about harsh. Well, there's one thing that's clear here, I think, in this story that Christians also need to keep in mind, that God doesn't need Kanye West to accomplish his purposes. Okay, let's be clear about that. But occasionally, even though it's rare, God does take someone like Kanye West, a very high-profile celebrity who's got a very unrighteous background, and use that person for his purposes. As a matter of fact, I can think of someone clearly in Scripture who was like that, the apostle Paul. And Paul was a very well-known, high-profile religious leader of his day.

He was a murderer of Christians, and he was radically converted, and became just probably the most, outside Jesus Christ himself, the greatest evangelist and discipler of all time. So, unless there are ulterior motives in the story of Kanye West, and there certainly could be. You know, what people say, they can say things and have ulterior motives. Maybe it's about making more money, or about the new album, and there's a Jesus element to the album, Jesus is King, it's entitled, and he wants to have the album more popular, or this is just a new challenge, a new demographic for him to reach out to, or he's trying to reinvent himself.

There's lots of motivations that this could be just an ulterior motive here, granted. But at minimum, I think it would be hard to discount or dismiss that this man, Kanye West, is deeply searching spiritually at least, and perhaps has become a true believer at best. So, the parable of the soils is, I think, very important to understand not only the situation with Kanye West, but really any profession of faith. You know, people make professions of faith, and we look at them, and look at their lives, or look at even our own lives, our own profession of faith, and we kind of wonder.

You know, try to put context around someone's profession of faith. Well, this parable of the soils is maybe the most important parable that Christ gave. I heard a pastor say once that it's really the foundation parable for all the other ones that Christ gave. There's the string of parables that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 13, and this is the first one, and this parable is also repeated in Mark 4 and also in Luke 8.

We'll read the passage from Matthew chapter 13, where it says in verse 3, And he, Jesus, spoke many things to them, and just to the people he was ministering to, in parables, saying, here's the parable of the sower, Behold, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others, other seed, fell in the rocky places, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.

Third type of soil here. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. Fourth soil, and others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty, he who has ears let him hear. And then he goes on in verse 10 to give the explanation, The disciples came to him and said, Why do you speak to them in parables? Jesus answered them, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance.

But whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. So what does that mean, and why did Jesus speak in parables?

He spoke in parables for two reasons. For those who wouldn't believe, speaking in parables was actually an act of mercy, because he knew judgment was going to be on them. If he gave them more clear information, clear knowledge about the gospel, and they again rejected it because he knew they would, there would be greater condemnation on them in judgment.

Think about that for a moment. It was an act of mercy that he knew those who wouldn't believe, that he didn't want to add further judgment onto them for rejecting clear knowledge of the scripture. And then for those who did believe, who had spiritual eyes and ears to believe, he knew that they would understand what he's talking about. So then Christ goes on in verse 18 of Matthew 13 to explain what this parable meant to the disciples. He said, Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom or the gospel, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road. There's the first soil, the hard road. The one on whom the seed was sown in the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, makes a profession of faith, there's joy, there's emotion, yet he has no firm root in himself, but it is only temporary.

And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, here's the third kind of soil, this is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Fourth soil, and the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some as a hundred, some sixty, and some thirtyfold.

So here's the explanation, the sower in this parable is God. The seed is the gospel, the saving message that is sown like seed out into the world. And there's four types of soil where the seed hits. These are four responses basically to the seed of the gospel. So God's sowing it, the seed is the gospel, and the four types of soil are the four responses to the gospel. The roadside one is where the gospel doesn't penetrate at all.

It's just discarded and the person just moves on. They have a hard heart from repeated sin in their life, there's no repentance, when you continue to harden your heart, when you're convicted of a sin, your heart becomes harder and harder and harder, and when the gospel hits your heart, it doesn't go on because it's so hard. That could, I read one comment or Bible comment, I say that could refer to the religious leaders of Christ's day, who had lots of religion, were very religious people, but they continued to harden their heart to who Christ was, and so the seed was thrown on them, they could see his miracles and everything else, didn't matter, didn't penetrate their heart, it was completely like sowing the gospel seed on a paved road.

It's not going to take root. The second one is the rocks. These are people who have a positive emotional response to the gospel, they receive it with joy, but then the trials of life or persecution that goes with being a Christian, it makes them walk away. It proves it wasn't real saving faith. And this could be referred to the people in the time of Christ to just follow Jesus to kind of see the miracles or be fed or to be wowed, that sort of thing, but when the reality of living the Christian life and being a follower of Christ set in, they weren't truly saved.

The third one is the thorns. These are people who respond to the gospel, again, a profession of faith, but then all the things of life, whether it's the worries of life, it's making money, it's having possessions, those are more important, those are the primary object of attention and focus over God. And then again, it proves that there was no true saving faith. There's the first three, the roadside, the rocks and the thorns, those are people, at least the second and third one, where there's a profession of faith, but there's not true saving faith.

When we come back, we'll get into that fourth soil and then talk about potential obstacles for Kanye West. Back more on the Christian worldview. The prosperity gospel is a prominent false gospel that God offers health, wealth and prosperity if you just have faith and give money. Costee Hinn grew up on the inside of the prosperity gospel movement.

His uncle is world-renowned prosperity preacher Benny Hinn. Costee saw it all, the manipulation, staged healings, luxuriant lifestyles and perversion of scripture before God opened Costee's eyes to understand sound doctrine and believe in the true gospel. Now a pastor, Costee has written an important book entitled God, Greed and the Prosperity Gospel, which chronicles his own experience and gracefully points the reader to the truth of scripture. For a limited time, you can order this 224-page softcover book for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview.

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Well, here's something that doesn't usually happen during the commercial breaks. I received a text message from someone. It's a picture of a guy who's deer hunting this morning. He's taken a picture, a selfie of himself in a deer stand with the sun rising in the background and he wanted to send me a picture because he's wearing an orange Christian worldview think biblically live accordingly hat in his deer stand. So I don't think I've had that happen before during the program but it's great to see the Christian worldview even out into the woods of Minnesota today as the hunting opener here in this day for deer and so I guess people are out and about but today here in the radio program we're talking about Kanye West and the parable of the soils about all the news that's been made about Kanye West's profession of faith in Christ and then the last segment we're going over the parable of the soils how that gives context to understanding how the gospel is received. There's the seed that is sown by God on the roadside, the hard road and that doesn't penetrate a hard heart. There's not even a profession of faith, it's just rejected and just move on.

Nothing here to see, move on. Number two, soil is the person who is the rocky ground and this is where there's a positive emotional response to the gospel. There's a profession of faith but then the trials and persecution that go along with being a follower of Christ make the person walk away and prove that it was never a true conversion in the first place. Third, soil is the thorny patches. This is again a response to the gospel of profession of faith but the concerns and the cares of life whether it's the things that are so temporal money and possessions and the concerns and worries of life those become the most important thing.

Those are the things that are focused on rather than the primary object of worship and attention which is God. And finally Jesus said in this parable there's one type of soil where there is genuine conversion. This is the good soil, the soft soil that receives the seed of the gospel. This is someone who hears the gospel, who understands the gospel and then who receives it and then bears fruit and they bear fruit to varying degrees.

It says some 100 fold, some 60 and some 30. And the fruit here is the evidence of the saving faith. It's not the means of gaining saving faith, it's the evidence of it. It's a love for God and his word. There's obedience to God, there's repentance over sin in the life. It's not a state of perfection but it's a situation of direction, it's a trajectory.

Where are they moving? Are they moving in the path of righteousness down the narrow road that leads to life or are they moving in a direction that leads away from that? So that person, the good soil, the fourth is genuinely saved. Kanye West has certainly made a profession of faith which moves him out of the first soil. He's obviously responded to the gospel and it's moved him into the second or third or fourth types of soil. The second and third are false professions. The fourth is genuine saving faith.

And we know that mere profession or emotion or works don't save. I think the passage that when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, not all those who profess and call me Lord, that doesn't make you a Christian. Just like walking into a church doesn't make you a Christian.

Nothing to do with it. Then Christ goes on to say, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. In other words, there will be evidence that you are pursuing a righteous life, that you are pursuing good works in your life and you're not trusting in those good works as meriting or earning salvation with God. You're just doing them because that's what the Bible commands and you want to serve and please God.

They have nothing to do with regeneration. That's the evidence of regeneration, not the means of gaining salvation. He goes on to say, many will say to me in that day. So there's many professors, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles. So this person who's saying this is, did we, it's a group of people apparently, aren't we professors, but not only aren't we just professors to follow you, but we did all these things in your name too. We prophesied and we did these miraculous things.

We cast out demons and your name performed many miracles. In other words, don't all these things we did prove we're a Christian? See, they're basing their faith on what they do to be saved.

And then listen to what Jesus says to them and then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I've heard a pastor say about this, that this is the scariest passage in Scripture, that we can go through life professing to be a follower of Christ. We call Jesus Lord, okay, we have that profession. And then we start thinking that we have all these works we've done.

Did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles. I mean, not only this isn't just going to church and going to Bible study. I mean, we've done these amazing things for Jesus. And then we find out that Jesus is going to declare to us that he never knew me, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Well, behind these supposed good works, there's a practicing of sin. And that's the reality. We can do external good works on the outside and people can see those things.

But on the inside, what is the condition of our heart? Again, is there a practice of righteousness and obedience to God? Or is there a practice of sin? And that word practice means something you do regularly.

It means something that you do, it characterizes your life. See, if you're a true believer, you will practice righteousness. Okay, that doesn't mean you will never sin, but that won't be the practice of your life.

It won't be something you do day after day in an unrepentant fashion. And then when you do sin, you repent over it. And in the power of the Holy Spirit, you will have at least ongoing victory over them, not perfect, not perfection, but ongoing victory. Christ is going to, the Holy Spirit is going to sanctify you. You're on a journey down the narrow road, you're becoming more sanctified and holy. Now, if you're not truly saved, you're going to be beset and be practicing sin over and over again.

And that's a good evidence for us to look at as we examine our own lives. So the good news here for Kanye West is that he appears to be, at least to some degree, I don't know him personally and don't see him behind closed doors, he appears to be putting off his old self and trying to practice lawlessness, I mean, righteousness. But if it's merely a lifestyle change he's trying to make, I was a bad person, I'm a sinner, now I'm trying to be a good person. In other words, I went from practicing sin to now I'm practicing religion or false religion, then his conversion is not true. So the other thing you need to consider about any conversion for anyone who becomes a Christian, and I think particularly in the case of Kanye West, are the obstacles that someone like Kanye West or any believer is going to encounter when they are faced with the seed of the gospel being sown on top of their heart. They're going to count the cost, they're going to think about what does this mean for my life and the relationships in my life?

What is this going to mean for my future? And that's a very, very important thing to think about before, and they're in the process of when you consider coming to putting your faith, your trust, your belief in Christ as your savior. The first thing I think everyone needs to consider when having that seed of the gospel sown on them is they're actually trusting in the true gospel. In other words, that the gospel message being presented to them is not one of the many, many false gospels.

We've gone over some of these on the program this year, whether it's the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, that God wants you healthy and happy and wealthy, and you're going to get some B-blast Christianity. That's not the true gospel. Or it's the works gospel, that if you do all these things, check all these boxes, God will be happy with you and you'll be saved. So there's all these different gospels out there that Satan counterfeits that we don't believe in the true gospel of grace. And the true gospel of grace is that Christ came to earth to die for sinners, and when you put your faith and trust in him, God will forgive you and make you right with him and grant you eternal life. That's the true gospel.

So that's a danger for Kanye that he hasn't necessarily trusted in, perhaps, the true gospel. I don't know that, but only he would know that inside of his heart. What are you trusting in? That is such a key question for anyone to ask themselves. If I were to stand before God and he were to say, Why should I let you into heaven?

What are you going to say? Well, I believe in your son and look at all these good things I did. I went to church and I went to Bible study and I was a good moral person.

No. So what you're saying is you trusted in Christ, but you also trusted in yourself as well. You felt you could earn favor with God by all these religious things you've done. That is offensive to God because Christ came. You're saying that Christ's sacrifice on the cross wasn't quite good enough and you needed to do a little extra. That's offensive to God. What we can only trust in is Jesus Christ and his righteousness, what he did on the cross on our behalf, and bring nothing of our own. So that's the first obstacle here for Kanye West or anyone who considers becoming a Christian. The second thing he's going to struggle with is breaking with his former life.

I read an article on the website Pulpit and Pen. It says, What I am seeing in social media, the writer writes, is a lot of discerning Christians listing off the things that Kanye needs to repent for or be willing to give up. You know, he's made millions from marketing, lasciviousness, and profanity. His wife has hardly been modest.

They've been accommodating to Bruce Jenner's sinful delusions of being a woman now. He's been sacrilegious, Kanye West has. From what I know, Kanye has been told that he must give up his life to gain it. Matthew 6 25, that gaining his soul is more important than gaining the whole world.

Absolutely true. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? Jesus said in Mark chapter 8. Then he might have to give up his fans and fortune to follow Christ.

And so these are some of the things that he's going to have to make a break with. I heard him say in one of his interviews, and this is not a good sign of someone who's come to faith in Christ. Listen to what he says about himself. I am unquestionably, undoubtedly the greatest human artist of all time. It's just not even a question anymore at this point.

It's just a fact. Okay, so that doesn't sound like someone who has humility, who has come to faith in Christ. Let another man praise you and not your own lips, the Bible says. Humility is a sign of being under the authority of God and His Son.

You don't promote yourself, that kind of thing. So that is not a good sign that this is a true conversion. And when we come back, we're going to have more audio from him and talk about some of these other obstacles that Kanye West is going to face. Faith, face, I mean face and faith confused.

He's going to face. And we'll have some summary thoughts on this topic about Kanye West and the parable of the soil. This is the Christian Real View.

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I'm David Wheaton, the host. We're talking today about Kanye West and the parable of the soils in Kanye West's profession of faith in Christ. And we were talking about some of the obstacles that he's going to face here. And the first one is that he hasn't actually trusted in the true gospel. We don't know that. We don't know his heart, but that's an obstacle for anyone, that they're trusting in a gospel other than the gospel of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And then the second obstacle we talked about is breaking with his former life. Everything that Kanye has in life has come from an unrighteous life. He didn't become successful righteously but unrighteously. The vulgarity in his music, the self-centeredness, the fleshiness. The music was about glorifying and abusing women, vulgarity, all these kinds of things. This is where he made his money.

And there's going to have to be a break with his former life. And interestingly, he had some kind of conviction about even being involved in rap music, as going on with this article from Pulpit and Pen, as reported by Apologia Radio. Adam Tyson, that pastor again, explained that Kanye was prepared to reject the genre of rap music, but the pastor explained that it could be used for God's glory. And then the writer writes, we pray that Pastor Tyson isn't getting in the way of the Holy Spirit's work in Kanye's life with regards to music. And his conscience was apparently convicted about rap music, and perhaps he should have heeded that, because rap and rock are so associated with self and unrighteousness that I'm not so sure the genre can be sanctified.

Now, some of you may disagree on that, but I think it's a debatable issue. But I want to just play about a minute of Kanye rapping on an airplane when he was being interviewed by that James Corden, the guy who does those drive-along karaoke things with famous singers. He did one with Kanye West, with Kanye West's Sunday service choir on an airplane going from Wyoming to Los Angeles.

And the plane all of a sudden got up and just sang, it was a sing-along on the plane. I'm just going to play a minute from you just to give you an idea of how his rap music now has now been turned into lyrically Christian lyrics. Jesus walk, Jesus walk, Jesus walk with me, with me, with me, with me, with me, with me To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the strippers Jesus walks with them To the victims of welfare, but we living in hell here, hell yeah Jesus walks with them Now, here we, here we, want to see thee more clearly I know he hear me when my feet get weary Cause we're the almost nearly extinct We rappers as role models, we rap, we don't think I ain't here to argue about his facial features We're here to turn atheists into believers I'm just trying to say the way school needs Jesus The way Catholic need increases That's the way I need Jesus So here go my single dog, radio needs us They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus That means God sex, lies, videotape But if I talk about God, my record won't get played Well, if this take over Okay, I'm just going to cut there just for sake of time You can go and hear this It's a pretty amazing interview on this airplane with James Corden Go search for that on YouTube But, you know, you can be, you can decide for yourself Whether you think that's sanctified, God-honoring music The lyrics inside of it, certainly where he was talking about You know, Christ walks with sinners and I'm not here to turn I'm here to turn atheists into believers, that kind of thing So you can judge for yourself on that But that's the second thing he's going to have to make a break from His former life That's going to be a difficult one That's defined him as a person His unrighteousness in the past And that's made him who he is The third thing is a difficult one as well For him or anyone who becomes a believer What does it do to your marriage? He says in the Christian Post that Kanye West's newfound convictions Has encouraged the rapper and fashion guru to be a dedicated family man His wife, Kim Kardashian, said He had this epiphany of being this Not that he wasn't an amazing dad, but being more strict as a dad And very forceful in the imagery that's in our household and what they see I actually agree with it, but I'm not, I'm always going to be me, Kim Kardashian said The debate between Kardashian and her husband over a revealing custom designer dress The night before the Met Gala in May was featured during a recent episode Of Keeping Up with the Kardashians In that episode Kanye expressed how his wife's decision to wear Immodest clothing in public negatively affects him To which she replied that she's not on the same path as him Referring to his newfound faith in Christ That's a big one Because he, there could be friction there, major friction there And there's a counting of the cost And if I really follow this, what is this going to do to my marriage What is this going to do to my children To that Jesus responds in Luke 18 There is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children For the sake of the kingdom of God Who will not receive many times as much At this time and in the age to come In eternal life Not to say that's an easy choice to make But it's a choice of importance What is the most important thing to do in life And that is to follow Christ Even if it means that relationships here on earth Intimate, serious, important relationships Are broken Or not broken, are parted Because of that That's going to be a big obstacle for him or anyone Who comes to saving faith in Christ And finally The last one is maybe surprising I think there's a big obstacle here About the pull that he's going to be getting From all the whole spectrum of Christianity He's going to be pulled by everyone Let's take Kanye under our team The word faith movement The health, wealth and prosperity gospel The works-based Christian religions They're all going to want Kanye to be on their team As a matter of fact He said something with this On one of his recent Sunday services That's really not a good sign here Now listen to what he said here And there's going to be a whole bunch of people call me like You ain't supposed to mention that at Sunday service though But there's some guy put on my heart And then there'll be pastors That want to talk about Oh TDJ said this He ain't say he wasn't pure to the Bible But then they can't tell you a black pastor that they like though It's a divide in Christianity That's what I've seen since I've been saved for like since I'm an early convert I'm just on stage like take a look at this video You know, I'm yay Here's what I see If you believe that Jesus died for your sins Then you know the gospel That's the gospel Don't be telling me Mormons got an extra book And Catholics do that It's simple Christians we be making it too hard For people to come and be involved in this Nice sentiment of course And most people want to applaud that But that's not actually the case There's false gospels out there That lead people not to heaven but to hell It's a very big deal that Mormons have a book beyond scripture They're saying that scripture isn't good enough The Bible says a curse The last verse or two of scripture talks about adding or taking away from this book Catholics have a works righteousness system of salvation These are very big deal T.D. Jakes has an errant view of the Holy Spirit A modalistic view of the Holy Spirit These are major things Now you can attribute this to that maybe he's young in his faith and doesn't get this yet He'll get to that I get it I'm giving grace But still he said it and that needs to be definitely corrected So let's just summarize today by concluding this way Time will tell with Kanye West I don't know whether he's a true believer or not There's some good signs There's some kind of questionable signs But we can certainly pray for him That this would be a true sowing of seed on good soil in his heart And he will produce fruit and be truly saved So time is going to tell Becoming a true believer in Christ is the hardest decision in the world But it's also the best You have to step off the throne of your own life And ask Jesus to take over You have to forsake your sin And be willing to endure criticism And abandonment And everything that goes with being a believer But it's worth it There's nothing more important than becoming a follower A believer in Jesus Christ Thank you for joining us today on The Christian Worldview Until next weekend, think Biblically and live accordingly We'll see you next time. Until next time, think Biblically and live accordingly