Empty Deceptions Vying for Post-Christian Minds

Empty deceptions vying for post-Christian minds. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Real View 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. There are only two foundations for thinking and living. On one hand you have the perfect Word of God, and on the other you have the flawed Word of God. Now, in running further and further away from the truth of God's Word, our leaders and our people run headlong into the fallen and foolish reasonings of man that Paul warned Christians to avoid when he said, rather than according to Christ.

The empty deceptions of our day are seen and felt everywhere now. When one believes the lie that white, male, heterosexual Christians are responsible for victimizing everyone else, causing every kind of conflict and ill, flawed and discriminatory solutions like diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as DEI, which actually codifies injustice and discrimination against the alleged oppressors. Christians live in this fallen world with all its ungodly philosophies, and so we must be informed and prepared when it confronts us in our own workplace, our own school, our own church, or even with children in our home who have been taken captive by these empty deceptions. Daryl Harrison, host of the Just Thinking podcast and a member of the pastoral staff at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, joins us today on the Christian worldview to provide deeper insight on ideologies like DEI and pejorative terms like colonization used towards Americans, and you also hear it used toward Israelis. He will also explain how these deceptions need to be especially resisted at the door of the church.

Now, this departure from truth into foolishness that is taking place right now is nothing new. Listen to the progression in Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 18. Paul writes, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

What do they do? Who suppress the truth, God's truth, in unrighteousness? Because that which is known about God is evident within them. In other words, God puts a conscience in us so that we know He exists and have a basic understanding of right and wrong. The passage goes on to say, For God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen.

So it's not only internal, it's external. Look at creation and we know God is there, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Verse 21, For even though they knew God from external revelation and internal revelation, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. And here's what happens when you do that. But they became feudal in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, here's the arrogance, they became fools. And that's what Scripture calls anyone who believes the empty deceptions based on the words of man, rather than the truth based on the Word of God. And here's where it ends up. Last part of verse 22, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, that's what's going on in our country, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. And so here you have this progression that ends in a depraved mind. And this explains why the diversity, equity, and inclusion empty deception being jammed down our throats and sold as, quote, justice and equity, includes not just blatant discrimination, but the promotion of the sexual and gender rebellion of the homosexual and transvestite movement. I didn't read all of Romans 1 there, but this is what that passage describes. So let's get straight to the interview with Daryl Harrison, as we discuss the empty deceptions vying for the minds in our post-Christian society.

Daryl, it's so good to have you back on the Christian Worldview radio program today. We're going to talk about what Colossians 2 describes as the philosophy and empty deception taking captive the minds of many people in our, I think what we can classify as a post-Christian America. Let's start out with the very prevalent empty deception of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I would call it the practical application of critical race theory, which sees the world as a division between oppressors. The oppressors are considered to be whites, males, Christians, heterosexuals, and other majority groups like that, who victimize oppressed groups, whether non-whites, women, homosexuals in the LGBTQ alphabet, or immigrants and so forth.

They have this DEI in order to forcibly equalize outcomes. This is Marxism at its core, and the worldview of diversity, equity, and inclusion is so pervasive now, Daryl. You're very aware of it. I see you post about it on Twitter and elsewhere and so forth, whether in the government, military, corporations, the educational system. I'll just read a little blurb here from the website College Fix. The University of Michigan has increased the number of DEI positions to over 500.

The article says that there's at least 241 paid employees at the university now focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion and payroll costs exceeding $30 million annually. Let's start out with having you explain what this invasion of DEI is and why an ideology that blatantly uses partiality, in other words, that's a biblical word for discrimination, has become so widely accepted in our country. Yeah, well, David, first of all, man, thanks for having me back on. It's really great to be back with you on The Christian Worldview. It's been a while. It's been too long, my friend, but it's always great to have these conversations with you on The Christian Worldview, one of the most courageous ministries out there, if I may say. I'm not meaning to embarrass you when I say that, but The Christian Worldview really is one of the most courageous ministries out there that does not hesitate in tackling some of these issues.

So thank you for what you're doing. Let me start with your earlier comment with respect to DEI. You may be surprised to know, David, they've added another alphabet to it. It's now D-E-I-A.

They've added the letter A for accessibility. Now, I would argue that DEI is just another way for critical race theory to bring to fruition their goal of reparations. And the thing about DEI, it's not only a practical application of critical race theory. DEI is going one step beyond in that, especially when you look at corporate America and upper academia. The partiality, the discrimination that we're seeing through the application of DEI is being codified into law.

I saw just on Twitter, well now X, a statement that came out from the White House on its official diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policy. And anyone who looks at DEI objectively can see that undergirding, regardless of what an application it looks like from the outside, it is an egregious, overt, and blatant discriminatory ideology that favors certain people on the basis of their ethnicity or their sex or both, while discriminating against others on those same grounds. Ideologically speaking, this is a blatant violation of Genesis 127, where we know that every human being was created in the image of God. And that's where equity and equality begin and end.

I treat you fairly, I treat you justly because you're an image bearer of God. But see, DEIA discriminates. That's really what the D. The D in DEIA should not stand for diversity.

It should stand for discriminate because by definition, when you apply DEIA, you have to make a prejudicial, biased determination of an individual based on who they are on the outside. That is the only qualifier that is necessary in DEIA. Merit doesn't matter. Hard work doesn't matter.

Accomplishment doesn't matter. Only ethnicity and maybe some other intersectional qualifiers, your sex or your gender that you identify as, you check those boxes and those give you subjective advantages under DEIA, which goes totally against the biblical precept of merit and getting what you earn, working for your reward. But the way that DEIA has spread, it's spreading like wildfire and it is being codified into law. It is being codified into policies under the guise, under the camouflage of equity and equality, and it is anything but that.

That's exactly the case. Well described. Daryl Harrison is our guest today on pastoral staff at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, also the host of the very popular Just Thinking podcast. Let's continue a little more, though, with this discussion of DEI because there's been a very visible demonstration controversy that is underlined by this ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The former Harvard president, now Claudine Gay, was brought along with, I believe, the president of the University of Pennsylvania and one other before Congress to ask about the purported anti-Semitic protests and activities going on on their campuses regarding the war in Israel, between Israel and Hamas, and so forth. And just from a brief blurb from a news outlet, Arizona Central, they say, 36 hours ago I, along with most of campus, sought refuge in our rooms as classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews while igniting smoke bombs and defacing school property. That statement was made by a Penn senior, Eyal Jacoby, probably Jewish, said before the hearing, he added, you're a dirty little Jew, you deserve to die. Our words said not by Hamas but by my classmates and professors.

This is a Penn senior saying this. An MIT student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an Israeli student was, quote, doxxed. In other words, their address given in an effort to intimidate or scare or harm someone and has stayed in his dorm room ever since due to death threats.

Harvard student Jonathan Frieden recounted that a mob of 200 people marched into his study room shouting anti-Semitic chants. Many of my friends ran up to the dean of students in DEI office. There's a DEI office at Harvard, but they had locked their doors for their own safety, he said. We heard nothing from Harvard. So let's listen to a short clip of this congressional hearing where Claudine Gay is questioned by Elise Stefanik, a House member from New York.

Dr. Gay, at Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no? It can be, depending on the context.

What's the context? Targeted as an individual, targeted at an individual. It's targeted at Jewish students, Jewish individuals. Do you understand your testimony is dehumanizing them? Do you understand that dehumanization is part of anti-Semitism? I will ask you one more time, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?

Anti-Semitic rhetoric, when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation, that is actionable conduct and we do take action. So the answer is yes, that calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct, correct? Again, it depends on the context. It does not depend on the context.

The answer is yes and this is why you should resign. These are unacceptable answers across the board. Again, that was House member Elise Stefanik questioning the then Harvard president Claudine Gay. Now, freedom of speech ends when you are calling for or inciting violence against someone.

You can protest Israel and you can be for Hamas, winning the war, but the law does not allow you to incite violence against a person or a group. Yes, that can be a fine line, but interestingly, Harvard president Claudine Gay never challenges the congresswoman's allegation that genocide of the Jews is being called for on campus. And even if it's a hypothetical situation, her answer should have been, well, of course you would take action against calls for genocide. Not saying, well, it depends on the context.

Calling for genocide is by definition calling for violence. And interestingly, Daryl, this answer about genocide of the Jews wasn't the issue that led to her resigning. It was the fact that when she was investigated more, she was found to be a serial plagiarist. Explain the story of Claudine Gay and then the fact that after she resigned, she still has a $900,000 per year salary at Harvard. So explain the context of this situation with Claudine Gay, exemplifying what DEI is all about. What you get in a Dr. Claudine Gay, this is the byproduct of DEI. DEI by definition, it inherently is designed to cause division.

DEI operationally, functionally, practically is an ideology of division. So as I was listening to that soundbite, it actually reminded me of the obfuscation and the difficulty with which Katonji Brown Jackson, when she was then a Supreme Court nominee and she was going through the nominee hearing before the Senate, refused to acknowledge that she knew what a woman was, what a biological woman was. Here you heard Dr. Claudine Gay take that same approach in responding to the question, if direct threats of attack of Jewish students violated Harvard's bullying and harassment policy, she refused to answer yes or no to Senator Stefanik.

I mean, how do you explain that? So when you hear someone like a Dr. Gay say, well, yeah, it depends on the context. I mean, what context do you need if someone is saying to me, death to the Jews and I'm Jewish?

That's the context right there. It's a death threat. But this is what DEI does. DEI advances a mindset where people already hate other people.

So DEI is the framework that facilitates hatred of one designated group of people by other people. And here you have in a Dr. Claudine Gay, I promise you, she did not recently adopt these attitudes towards Jews. When you look at the landscape of hold prominent DEI positions, the vast majority of them are Black and female. And that says something because when you look at Katonji Brown Jackson, when you look at Katonji Brown Jackson, when you look at a Dr. Claudine Gay, these are all women who are from that generation of the James Cone School of Liberation Theology, the same group of people who are of that generation that birthed critical race theory.

And these people are now the milieu as such now, as we sit here in 2024, that they can openly express their prejudices, their discriminatory attitudes toward others of God's image bearers with impunity. If DEI had anything to do with merit or objective performance, Dr. Claudine Gay, number one, would not have been in that position. You alluded to the plagiarism, multiple instances of plagiarism. But if DEI had anything to do with merit, Dr.

Gay would not have been in that position as president of Harvard, nor would she have taken as long as she did to step down from that position. Because a person who is in a position like that on merit, they're going to be convicted in their soul that, no, I don't deserve this. I am guilty of plagiarism. I don't deserve to be here. Not only do I not deserve to be in this position, I don't deserve to retain a $900,000 salary because I didn't earn it.

I basically lied to the institution to get into this position. But DEI doesn't take account of anything remotely having to do with merit. If you're the right skin color, if you have the right shade of melanin, that's all that matters in DEI.

That's all that matters. That is why the vast majority of people who hold DEI positions are black and female. And this whole idea of the DEI standing for diversity, that's a fallacy. Because where's the diversity in the fact that the vast majority of these position holders are black and female? What's the diversity in that?

There is none. Daryl Harrison is our guest today. We encourage you to connect with his work in ministry, including the Just Thinking podcast. We have links to all of it at our website, thechristianworldview.org. We'll pause briefly for some ministry announcements. I'm David Wheaton, and you are listening to The Christian World View. You can preview the calendar in our store at thechristianworldview.org. Normal retail is $12.99. For a limited time and while supplies last, the desktop calendar is available for a donation of any amount to The Christian World View.

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And we know the Bible is the inspired Word of God, providing the only way to think and live to the glory of God. We are a non-profit listener-supported ministry. If you would like to help us impact listeners with the biblical worldview and the gospel, consider becoming a Christian World View partner who regularly give a specified amount to the ministry. As a thank you, Christian World View partners automatically receive many of the resources featured on the program throughout the year. To become a Christian World View partner, call us toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or visit thechristianworldview.org. Welcome back to The Christian World View.

I'm David Wheaton. Be sure to visit our website, thechristianworldview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Our topic today is empty deceptions vying for post-Christian minds.

And Daryl Harrison, host of the Just Thinking podcast and a member of the pastoral staff at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona, is our guest. Daryl, a term that's coming up very often, it's not new, but it's been used a lot recently with regards to what's going on in Israel with Hamas. A professor at Yale, Nicholas Christakis, said this, if you do a Harvard online course catalog and you type in the search box the word the word decolonize, that word is in the titles of seven courses and the descriptions of 18 additional courses. Words like oppression and liberation are in the description of more than 80 courses.

Social justice, that term, is in the course description of greater than 100 courses. So there's this term, let's just focus on one, this idea of a colonizer, or we need to decolonize America or Israel, or the idea of an occupier. These are common terms being used now toward America and toward Israel.

What do these terms mean, colonizer, occupier? There's obviously a negative association with them, but what is the point of these terms? All these terms are all these terms have their roots in cultural Marxism. I mean, we're talking about the ideology of Karl Marx now passed down through the third and fourth generation. I think what we need to understand here is that these courses that you alluded to just then, these types of courses should surprise no one that they exist within the upper echelons of academia, because some of our most esteemed institutions of higher learning have deep histories in facilitating communism and Marxism in America under the guise of free speech, and that's what's happening here.

This is how we got these courses. We got these courses under the guise of free speech, and that principle is what attracted a lot of these Marxist and communist ideologues to these institutions where now they're professors, they're administrators, they're deans, they're presidents, and they're holding these positions because not only do they believe these themselves, they're now attracting young people who think they know what the world is like but who've adopted these ideas as well, a lot of them from their own parents because their parents are from that generation and their grandparents are from that generation of the 60s where all it was about was free this, free that, free thinking, free ideas, free expression. Well, now we're seeing the fruits of that, but those terms are all embedded in cultural Marxism, and it's interesting. If I could connect this to the DEI conversation that we were talking about earlier, you look at what's happening in Israel and Hamas. DEI being a very ethnocentric ideology, and what I mean by that is an ideology that's built and based on the color of a person's skin. You have those same people at these academic institutions who are supportive of DEI supporting Hamas.

Why? If I could be very blunt here, they support Hamas because they are brown-skinned people. So yeah, I'm going to support them because they look like me. So because they look like me, then that means that their struggle is identical to mine. I put struggle in air quotes because no black person in America is struggling in the context that DEI advocates say they are. This isn't 1964 anymore. This isn't 1864.

This is 2024. But the narrative is that over the past 200 years, nothing in America has changed. So the narrative consistently is still today about a struggle. They know nothing about the historical antagonism that has existed between Israel and Arab nations for centuries. That conflict gives them a convenient excuse to sort of extend their hatred of quote unquote white people and understand in critical race theory, meaning in DEI, Jews are white. If you're not black, you're white.

Even if you're Asian, you're white. The conflict over in the Middle East is a conflict of black versus white. That's what people have to understand.

This is how these people think. So the conflict over there in the Middle East is a Marxist dynamic of the haves and the have nots. The Jews are the haves. Hamas are the have nots. The proletariat versus the bourgeoisie, which is what Marx argued against. The Jews are the bourgeoisie. Hamas are the proletariat.

That's really what that boils down to. And so that's where you get the terms colonizer or occupier. The Jews have been in the land forever, since millennia ago, but somehow they're occupying this land or colonizing the land. And who really owns land? I mean, no one has a title deed to the world, except if you can hold your own ground or take it over. Every region or country has been founded typically through military encounters. And if you can take it over and hold it, well, it's yours.

If you can't, then you lose it. That's where that whole colonizer occupier argument leads. That's why I'm so dogmatic about not buying into the term indigenous. Scripture tells us that the earth and everything in it belongs to God. No one's indigenous, as if to say, well, I was here first, so that means I own this. Yeah.

So we have to sort of exegete that term. And indigenous doesn't mean you own it. I will say this. No one's the first person to be anywhere. The only two truly indigenous people, David, were Adam and Eve.

Everybody else is a progenitor of that relationship back in the Garden of Eden. So there is no truly indigenous person. But this whole idea of colonization and what we have to understand, the culture is going to try to convince you that decolonization doesn't mean recolonization. It actually means the opposite. Decolonization is recolonization.

That's what people need to understand. So when these communists and these Marxists who are demonstrating on college campuses, who are blocking highways so that people can't get home, they're holding their and waving their Palestinian flags, talking about decolonize the Middle East, decolonize the Gaza Strip. They also want to decolonize America, by the way. They're not arguing for decolonization.

They're arguing for recolonization. That's what makes this whole thing, David, eschatological. Because when you talk eschatology, people usually think in times that something is coming to an end.

But that's not true. Eschatology is not just something coming to an end. It is something coming to an end but replacing it with something else. So eschatology is both an end and a new beginning. And that's what these folks are arguing when they talk about decolonization. It is not doing away with anything.

It is doing away with one thing and replacing it with something else. Well, the battle rages, doesn't it, Daryl? Daryl Harrison, again, is our guest on the pastoral staff at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona. We've talked about DEI in the broader culture, Daryl, but this has also infiltrated the church as well. We hear terms like social justice, or even gospel-centered ministry, I think is often used as a term to get away from the discovery that social justice is not what we were told it was.

The push for elder boards to be made up of a certain diversity of skin color, or women to be on pastoral staffs in churches, or even gay Christianity, in a more extreme sense. We drive by a so-called church—it's not really a church. Every Sunday to our own church, it's a Unitarian Universalist building, I should say. They have a rainbow flag flying out front. They have the huge letters on the side of the church, Black Lives Matter. They even have a sign that says, Powered by Solar Energy. And the parking lot is full on Sundays, by the way.

Recently, I saw that you commented on a so-called pastor, this woman named Deanna Dudley up in Toronto, at Metropolitan Community Church, and here's what she said, touching all the key bases of DEI and God-rejection. I am just loving Pride Month. I love it every year. I'm loving all the queer events and the human rights work and the celebrations. I'm loving all the rainbows around town and the people who decorate their balconies for Pride. So can anyone tell me, what is the point of Pride Month?

What's to be proud about? Awesome. I think I heard about 50 different answers.

They're all great. There may even be more. So when I'm looking for answers, I turn to the Bible. Just kidding, not always. Sometimes, as you know, I turn to bumper stickers and Facebook memes, and if I'm really stuck, I ask my wife, but I digress. So Pride is about a lot of things, but for me, Pride is first and foremost about a spirit of freedom. And the late 2SLGBTQ Plus activist Harvey Milk famously said, I have tasted freedom, and I will not give up that which I have tasted to be free.

We're free because God put a spirit of freedom within us, and we need to nurture that spirit inside of us and protect it in our world. And as people of faith and as a community of faith, we need to pay attention to our spiritual lives to nurture and care for ourselves and our own spirits, and to care for one another in the faith, to nurture and care for young and old and cis and trans and single and partnered and straight and gay and intersex and genderqueer and black and white and the whole mix of us. And as we are willing to be led by the spirit, we will bear the fruit of the spirit that Paul speaks of in his letter to the Galatians, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And these things will be the hallmarks of us as individuals and as a beloved community as we follow where God's spirit leads us and God only knows where her spirit is going to lead us next. Again that was Deanna Dudley, the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church in Toronto. Now where to start on that one, the celebration of homosexual sin, the mocking of going to the Bible for answers and instead going to bumper stickers and Facebook memes and listening to quote unquote her wife.

A perfect example of basing your worldview on the word of man versus the word of God. She mentioned Harvey Milk in there in case listeners don't know who he is. He was the first open homosexual on the San Francisco board of supervisors. He is an icon to the LGBTQ movement.

He was assassinated along with the mayor back in the day. There's a naval ship named after him and she talks about freedom but what she's really describing is what the Bible calls enslavement to lust and sin. Romans 6 6 knowing this that our old self, our unsaved self, was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. In other words we're either a slave to sin when we're unsaved or when we're saved we are slaves to Christ and to righteousness.

And finally she concludes by blaspheming the Holy Spirit and blaspheming God, calling God a she or a her. Now of course Darryl this is not an evangelical church but where are we in the West as a civilization when so-called churches are flying rainbow flags, they're preaching transgender ideologies, bragging about pride month, joking about the Bible. You can't predict the future Darryl I know but where are we on the continuum? Earlier on in our conversation David you mentioned the term post-Christian. I think we're worse than that. I think at a minimum we're post-Christian but I think what we're seeing is a new neo-pagan milieu come to the fore.

Prime example is Deanna Dudley. I refuse to call her Reverend or Pastor but you're seeing increasing numbers of mainline churches especially where these women and men but now we're seeing increasing numbers of women occupying pulpits or not wearing these rainbow sachets over themselves as if those sachets carry with it some sort of authority in terms of the word being delivered by the person wearing it. I mean it used to be in old school evangelical churches where the reverend who was a man would step into the pulpit he'd be dressed in his black pastor's regalia with his sash over his shoulder hanging down in front of his chest and it represented a certain authority that was stepping into the pulpit and the person was speaking with the authority of the word of God but now that's not the case. I mean rainbows are increasingly replacing crosses in churches. You alluded earlier to the messages that are the marquees outside of some of these mainline churches.

Black Lives Matters flags hang side by side with the rainbow flag and now there are even some churches they have hanging the Palestinian flag next to those two flags. So the church in America and again I'm pausing here even as I speak in real time to you David it's getting tougher to even be able to use that word church because in the case of people like Deanna Dudley that's not a church. Well you can stand up there and openly mock the word of God. Openly mock it and then call yourself a church at the same time that's not a church. I said to someone on X when I was commenting on that video she says well when I'm searching for answers I go to the Bible.

Then she paused and said well just kidding not always. Well my question to her would be and I said this on X if you don't go to the Bible always why do you go to it at all? Now the Bible's not going to tell you how to make a cheeseburger so someone's listening to this and says well the Bible doesn't have all the answers. I don't mean that in a literal sense but in the context of the answers of life the answers of substance the answers of meaning and purpose you can go to scripture and find those answers but when she says that she mocks the scriptures and says no just kidding not always do I go to the Bible.

Why do you go to the Bible for anything? That would be my question to her but this is where we are David. We are in a neo-pagan ecclesiastical climate within the church to where Christ is just Mr. Kumbaya. He's just a good teacher. He shows us how to love one another. We should all come together so the rainbow flag now not only represents different sexual identities it now represents a sort of universalism where everybody can come together and we just commiserate with one another regardless of truth regardless of what is true we just get together each of us express our particular perspective of religion who God is who God isn't and then at the end of that sound bite she identifies God as a female pronoun as a she yes this is the kind of disrespect the kind of low level view of God that is beginning to permeate the church to where we so brought God down to our level that we can joke in his house about his word. I commented on that video on x that it's easier for people like her to mock God to mock his word when she's on this side of hell when you're on this side of eternity it's easy for her to crack jokes and get laughter from her congregants but see there's going to come a moment unless God grants her repentance there's going to come a moment where she's going to remember she's going to recall how she mocked God in that pulpit she will live eternally in a state of regret but by God's grace he's letting her breathe he's letting her heart beat it's like the word scripture says it says we should count the kindness of God as an opportunity to repent and I pray she repents but here's where we are the LGBTQ agenda has become so pervasive within the culture there's nowhere you can go it's not just Starbucks anymore where you see the gay bright flags it's in churches so-called churches and that's because churches for decades have preached a soft Jesus they've preached a soft gospel they've preached nothing but love love love love love nothing about God's wrath his holiness and judgment this is what you get when you preach a soft gospel with a soft Jesus yeah you're exactly right and I was thinking that this kind of quote-unquote non-pastor we can't even call her a pastor goes to the bible to really use it for her own leftist godless ideological ends and because people were made with a spiritual desire the religious aspect of this is effective at persuading people to your side and so there's a veneer of religiosity here very obviously not true religion but you're right she needs to repent and believe in the gospel otherwise she's going to face the holy and just God on judgment day we'll pause briefly for some ministry announcements stay tuned more coming up with Daryl Harrison I'm David Wheaton and you are listening to the Christian worldview radio program with every rising and setting of the sun we draw one day nearer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ so writes Steve Miller in the opening line of his new book one day nearer daily devotions in anticipation of Jesus glorious return Steve goes on to say as we grow in our knowledge of the Lord and his plans for our future may our desires for the things of earth diminish and be replaced by increasingly fervent longings for the things of heaven one day nearer is a soft cover 365 day devotional that retails for 19.99 for a limited time you can order it for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview this is an excellent supplement to bible reading or to gift to a friend to order go to thechristianrealview.org or call toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or write to box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 we've largely lost the honor and the nobility and the glory of biblical manhood and so many young men are not trained to be a leader a protector and a provider in a christ-like way that then creates the actual end product of young men who don't know how to be a man so we've largely lost the script for what being a biblical man is that was Owen Strand author of the excellent book the war on men this is a book for the entire family to read understand and then pursue what biblical manhood is the war on men is hardcover 256 pages in retails for 29.99 for a limited time you can get a copy for a donation of any amount to the Christian worldview to order go to thechristianrealview.org or call toll-free 1-888-646-2233 or write to box 401 excelsior minnesota 55331 welcome back to the Christian real view I'm David Wheaton be sure to visit our website the christianrealview.org where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter order resources for adults and children and support the ministry our topic today is empty deceptions vying for post-christian minds and Daryl Harrison host of the Just Thinking podcast and a member of the pastoral staff at Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert Arizona is our guest Daryl the audio clip we played in the last segment about the church in Toronto that was an extreme example of the mainline denominations we all know that they're not true biblical new testament churches they're really leftist social clubs but the evangelical church is still a professing biblical movement I think many believe that they can thread the needle on these issues of dei social justice they can be all are welcome here and somehow still be faithful to what scripture teaches in the bible what are your thoughts on mainstream evangelicalism trying to find a third way in the midst of this clash between what you called it not even post-christian america but like neo-pagan america in biblical christianity so I would just say third-weight ism is escapism third-weight ism within the church is ecclesiastical escapism and what I mean by that is that the whole all are welcome is just vernacular gymnastics to avoid the church being and fulfilling its true mission that is to first lovingly confront people about their sin to lovingly confront people that they have sinned against the holy god and here's where you can come to hear the message about how you can be in a right relationship with that holy god whom you've offended by virtue of your sin that's how I would summarize what these mainline churches are doing by opening up this big tent and what I call offering a kind of kumbaya gospel that's really not a gospel at all because a gospel that doesn't confront you about your sin is not the gospel we just came out of Christmas a few weeks ago and I'm always reminded of Matthew 1 21 where the angel tells Mary that you shall name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins that's literally what Matthew 1 21 says so a Jesus that is preached in these mainline churches or any church for that matter that does not introduce Jesus as the messiah as the son of god who came into the earth died on the cross to redeem sinful mankind from their sins is not the true Jesus of the bible amen but this is what you will not hear in those mainline churches so that's why I call that sort of escapism it is ecclesiastical escapism where people can come remain in their sin not hear a single syllable about repentance confession but they all congregate under the guys that god loves us all god loves everybody god's not going to judge us he's not an angry god he's not a god of wrath anymore and they're just loving they're not even loving people but they're lying people straight to hell Dave and I'm reminded of uh one of my favorite texts it's in it's in the book of James but it's James chapter 5 verses 19 and 20 and I think these two verses completely belie the sound bite that we just heard and the myth that these mainline churches are presenting James writes this he says my brothers if anyone among you wonders from the truth and someone brings him back let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins now I would argue that those two verses in James 5 verses 19 and 20 are what the evangelical church should be up to but that's not what they're doing they will not confront an individual tell them no you have wandered from the truth you are living in sin and I want you to come back I want you to turn I want you to repent that's what that word means I want you to turn around come back to the truth because you are risking an eternal death of your soul but instead nope let's just get together kumbaya around our campfire let's roast our marshmallows so to speak we hang our rainbow flags we hang our black lives matters flags we hang our palestinian flags and let's enjoy each other on our way to hell but no this is a sort of ecclesiastical neo-paganism where we have made gods of ourselves and then reduce god to our level and think he's okay with this he's not he's certainly not darrell thank you so much for your sound and sobering words based on scripture today in the program all of god's best and grace to you thank you david well darrell harrison gave us a lot to think about today we actually ran out of time getting to some other examples of empty deception or as he calls it neo-paganism in our society we were supposed to talk about the enneagram the sort of spiritual personality typing and the satanic display that was put up in the iowa state house didn't have didn't have time today but we'll try to get him back on for those topics i would encourage you to follow darrell's work in ministry all the links to him including his twitter or x account or at our website thechristianworldview.org some of you might even recall he was our keynote speaker at a christian worldview conference several years ago and i don't want to fail to say in response to his very kind words in the beginning of the interview about this program to god be the glory for anything we are or this program is we would be part of the neo-pagans ourselves without god's grace in salvation just a couple comments that he made that i thought were particularly good he said dei diversity equity inclusion sees hamas as black or dark-skinned and the israelis as white they're the white oppressors and that's why they side with hamas an overtly terrorist brutal organization that killed what is it 1300 civilians uh jewish civilians on that october seventh attack he also said dei is just another way to bring about reparations not only a blatantly discriminatory ideology but the point is to transfer wealth to the supposed oppressed groups and this is done by giving high-paying jobs to those based on their skin color instead of their merit and he also says something interesting earlier in the interview what the bible advocates merit he said getting what you earn working for your reward now he wasn't referring to justification by works the bible does not teach that we're justified by grace through faith but the bible does say that we work as believers for rewards in heaven so whether it's the parable of the talents and there's resultant rewards or a worker being worthy of his wage or if a man doesn't work neither let him eat the bible enjoins the principle of working for reward and not committing the sin of partiality based on their skin color to hire them but let's just close today being reminded of what the apostle paul said to the pagans or the idol worshipers in athens which was one of the leading cities of its day many of the most acclaimed writers and thinkers and schools were in athens greece but the people of athens were just educated pagans as our most prominent thinkers and leaders are today listen to how the apostle paul goes directly to their real need which is salvation reconciliation to god so paul stood in the midst of the areapagus and said men of athens i observe that you are very religious in all respects for while i was passing through and examining the objects of your worship i also found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god therefore what you worship in ignorance this i proclaim to you the god who made the world and all things in it since he is lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all people life and breath in all things and he made from one man adam every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation that they would seek god if perhaps they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and exist and then he concludes by saying this in verse 30 here's his call therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance god is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed that's jesus christ having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead that is the message for those who have been taken captive by the foolishness and empty deception of our day to repent and believe in this jesus christ who came and died for your sin on the cross so that you might be forgiven and reconciled to god do that today jesus said you must be born again if you have questions give us a call or go to our website thechristianworldview.org and click on the page what must i do to be saved thank you for joining us today in the christian real view in just a moment there will be information on how you can hear a replay of today's program order transcripts and resources and support this non-profit radio ministry let's anchor ourselves not in the word of man but in the word of god which says jesus christ is the same yesterday and today and forever 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 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