Scoffers and Apostasy in the Last Days

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It's reasoned, relevant content apologetics, worldview and answers to the questions that you need to know. From Alex McFarland Ministries, this is Truth for a New Generation Radio. And now the man who preached in 50 states in 50 days, speaker, writer and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. What should be the church's posture and voice at a time when so many people are not only rejecting God, but even after professing Christianity, walking away?

Hi, Alex McFarland here with the Truth for a New Generation Radio broadcast. If you're at a place where you can turn in the Bible, I invite you to turn to the New Testament book of 2 Peter chapter 3. I want to talk about scoffers and apostasy in the last days. Scoffers are people who mock God.

Apostasy is when people embrace Christianity and then one day walk away. Many of you probably saw the Christian band Hawk Nelson in the news. And the Twitterverse has been in a meltdown because the frontman of Hawk Nelson, John Steingard, has come out after decades in Christian music, being raised in the church, son of a pastor. Now he says that he doesn't believe in God anymore.

What do you think about this? Because it's funny, this week I also got a call from one of the vice presidents of a major American Christian university, and he was picking my brain a little bit about the state of kids that make a profession of faith. They spend years in youth group. Maybe they profess to be a Christian from Christian home. Maybe they even went to a Christian school.

And yet, post high school, they might, while professing Christianity, have wildly unbiblical beliefs and even very unbiblical lifestyles. On the one hand they might say that they are a Christian. But what about abortion? Is that wrong? Well, no, not necessarily they might say. What about homosexuality? What about transgenderism?

What about sex before marriage? What about Jesus being the one and only way to heaven? And we live in a very unusual time, at least in the Western church, Britain, Europe, the West, America.

Many people who claim to be Christian don't really have Christian beliefs. And as far as the gentleman from Hawk Nelson, it's hard to have too much empathy for somebody who has lived like a rock star since they were a teenager, and now they're in their 30s or fully into adulthood. The millions have been made, the palatial house has been bought, and now from a very posh lifestyle to sit back and pontificate and say the world is corrupt, there is no God. You know, I think about in February of this year I was in Nashville and I saw a dear friend and colleague, Johnny Erickson. Johnny Erickson and Ken Tada, and Johnny has been at our Truth for a New Generation conferences. And now in her 70s in constant pain, every waking moment in pain, and yet still traveling the world, ministering, telling people about Jesus, pointing people to Christ.

And Johnny said to me, she said, I've got one more TNG in me, I'll do one more Truth for a New Generation. And yet, for 50 years since her accident, in constant pain, truly, truly suffering, and yet a dynamic, world-touching representative for Jesus Christ. It's hard for a pampered American to be taken seriously when they talk about a hard life. I could take you to parts of the world, developing nations, third world countries, where people truly suffer for the gospel, and they love Jesus and they're praising Christ.

We in America, here during the COVID, the Pantene lockdown, we've experienced a minor smidgen of inconvenience. But we don't really know what persecution and suffering and bearing one's cross is like compared to so many other people throughout history that have been faithful servants of Christ who did not lapse in their faith. One poet said this as springtime comes around. This was by Sarah Henderson Hay, an American poet, who wrote once, God grant that I may never be a scoffer at eternity, as long as April brings the sweet rebirth of growing things. And as long as grass is green anew, I shall believe God looks down to upon his wide earth cold and brown, to bless this unborn mystery of leaf and bud and flower to be, to smile on earth from tender skies.

How could I think it otherwise? Had I been dust for many a year, I still would know when spring is near. For the good earth that pillowed me would whisper immortality, and I in part would rise and sing amid the grasses murmuring. When I look down on Mother's sod, how can I doubt that this be God? Or when a rose smiles at me, can I distrust eternity?

I've always loved the spring because after the cold winter and the earth is gray and brown and barren, it's spring when those little buds come out. And it's almost like Jesus whispers to this world, wake up. It's time to come back to life.

And do you know what? Springtime does depict that wonderful ultimate springtime when the trumpet sounds and Christ returns. And Paul wrote that we who are mortal will put on immortality, and this corruptible body will put on incorruption, and we will see Jesus, and we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

In other words, we're going to get a glorified body as he had a glorified body. And so when we come back, we're going to read 2 Peter 3, talking about the church's posture and ministry in a time of unbelief, rejection, vacillation, and selective obedience to Scripture. No, we need to take God's Word as it is, and remember not only the inerrancy of Scripture, but the authority of Scripture.

Stay tuned, Truth For A New Generation is going to be back with more after this break. The places of worship were well attended, but God was not impressed. In chapter 4 we read, their worship added to their sin.

In chapter 5, God hated their feast and would not accept their sacrifices. God wants His church to reflect His passion for reaching the lost, sharing His Word, and extending His mercy and grace. God has high expectations for His people. He wants His people to live well and finish well for Him. May the I Am A Watchman ministry help you on this journey.

Be faithful. Be a watchman. IAmAWatchman.com The Lord has a 100% track record in keeping His promises, and He lovingly offers to help everyone prepare for life and for eternity. Join Alex McFarland at the Cove as he shares from the Old Testament book of Daniel and the New Testament book of Revelation, the two most well-known books of Bible prophecy. Each reveals things about world history and the future that only God could know. Their prophecies could be a source of motivation, warning, and assurance.

They can also be an apologetic persuasion for non-believers. Get clarity on which events today may relate to these two prophetic books and be equipped to answer the big questions and objections about prophecy. Daniel and Revelation How God Wrote History in Advance with Alex McFarland, July 27-31 at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove. Find out more and register at thecove.org At Liberty University, you'll earn more than a degree. You'll earn the satisfaction of seeing what you can accomplish and what God can accomplish through you. Choose from more than 600 degree options from an associate to a Ph.D. and study 100% online more affordably than you think. Discover God's truth through every degree at Liberty University, where we train champions for Christ. Go to liberty.edu backslash explore to learn more. That's liberty.edu backslash explore to learn more. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit alexmcfarland.com Welcome back to the program.

Alex McFarland here. We're talking about how can the church minister in times of apostasy and unbelief. And I want to read from 2 Peter chapter 3, and let me reiterate a conversation I had this week with one of the vice presidents of a major American Christian university. He was asking me about the incoming students, many of whom, you know, claim to be from a Christian home. But really, in class, very often, he said like during orientation where they talk about being at a Christian university and Christian beliefs and living as a disciple. Sometimes the students will really push back against some of the clear teachings of God's word, like Jesus being the one and only Savior.

And people of non-Christian belief systems or people that reject Christ do not go to heaven. And let me be clear, honest questions are one thing. I mean, we've done Q&A in front of hundreds of audiences, tens of thousands of people. I love honest Q&A.

I even love a little bit of spirited debate. But what's really problematic about the times in which we live are the people that are in church claiming to be Christians, wanting the name Christian, the promise of heaven, but chafing repeatedly at things that are clear teachings of the word of God. 2 Peter 3 says, Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of Jesus' coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they are willingly ignorant, of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth, standing out of the water and in the water, wherein by the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. That's the flood of Noah. But the heavens and earth, which are now by the same word kept in store, in other words, the same God that spoke the world into existence, the same God that sustains the world by the word of his power, that's Colossians 1. God is keeping the heavens and the earth running till the time of Christ's return, and it's kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Perdition means destruction. Now here's my conversation with the leader of this major Christian university. He said, you know, we've got so many students that are products of American youth ministry, and they might have made a profession of faith, but they really aren't thoroughly biblical in their worldview. Whether it's trusting God's word about creation, trusting God's word about the severity of sin, trusting God's word about the exclusivity of Jesus the one and only savior, trusting God's word about morality and things that are clearly condemned as sin and sexual immorality by the word of God, and just really surrendering one's life fully to the Bible. And we begin to talk about apologetics and doing courses and content that, you know, present the evidence for the Christian faith, but I said, look, it's fine to do courses about the reliability of scripture, but we also need to impress on the hearts of all people the authority of scripture.

Now think about it. We can defend the Old and New Testaments as historically reliable, preserved. Friend, you have the word of God in the Bible. The holy writ, God's revelation to the human race, has been accurately preserved.

We can defend the reliability of the Bible, but we could have the works of Shakespeare reliably preserved, but that would not necessarily make them authoritative for life. We need to impress on people everywhere, and especially young people, the authority of scripture that God's word is, as so many of the old doctrinal statements would say, God's word is the rule for faith and practice. It is God's word. And as Jesus said in John 10 35, I mean, think about this, the scripture cannot be broken. I mean, Jesus said that. The virgin born, sinless son of God, the only person in history to rise from the dead. And so, back to 2 Peter 3 3, that in the last days, scoffers are going to come.

The fact that so many people nowadays that claim to be Christians and dabble in church brazenly live counter to the word of God, the scoffers and the lifestyle of the professed church that is ungodly, tells me that we must be in the last days. And one more word about John Steingard of Hawk Nelson, while we do need to pray for him, and we pray the Spirit of God will prevail over his heart and mind to give him the gift of repentance from his current state of apostasy. But here's the thing. Also, think about all the millions of young fans, impressionable young minds that he's influencing. My goodness gracious, if he did turn to unbelief and repudiate the God he once served, I would think long and hard before I would influence a watching world and millions, maybe even more than a billion people reading about it online.

And trust me about 20-somethings and younger. I mean, all it takes for many millennials to have a faith crisis is to read some blog site. Somebody will have a screen name like Goth Gamer, and they'll have a blog site trashing God. And that alone is enough to cause some young people to go into just a real faith crisis. One of our webcasts was being really critiqued by somebody in who knows where, just saying blasphemous things against God, and their screen picture, their little emoji for their screen image was a pot leaf.

And I think about my friend Gary Habermas. Gary Habermas, I mean there is no living human who has studied the resurrection of Christ as much as Gary Habermas. You know, you've got a lifetime of scholarship, the world expert on the resurrection, he can defend Christianity ten ways to Sunday, and yet some blogger living in a basement somewhere can write heinous, blasphemous things against God, and just off of one website, five decades of world-class scholarship can be forsaken by somebody who is kind of on the fence. And so to a Hawk Nelson frontman that decides to apostatize, I would say, just, you know, okay, if you don't want any part of God, fair enough, but be careful before you turn millions of impressionable millennials away that it only takes just one little bit of false information to push them over a tipping point of unbelief anyway. In the last days, scoffers, mockers will come. What should the church do? Stay tuned, because when we come back, I'm going to give you five points to think about in terms of being a Christian in a time of apostasy.

Truth for a New Generation Radio is back after this. This book will help you help your teens get off the roller coaster of doubt and onto solid ground. You'll read about the six pillars of biblical Christianity.

They are one, inspiration of the Bible, two, the virgin birth, three, the deity of Christ, four, atonement, five, Christ's resurrection, and six, Christ's return. If you're a Christian parent, you of course want to instill a biblical view of life in the hearts of your children. If you're a pastor, you want to offer ministry that draws young families to your church. This is Alex McFarland encouraging you to check out my new book and video curriculum, The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask About Christianity. Why do bad things happen? I interviewed hundreds of children, ages 5 to 12, and we address actual questions from actual children, the spiritual issues that are on the minds of your kids.

Did Jesus ever sin? The book and video lessons are great for groups of any size and was produced with the goal of equipping kids to stand strong for Christ in any situation. The 21 Toughest Questions Your Kids Will Ask, the book, study guide, and video series, you'll find it at AFASTORE.net.

That's AFASTORE.net. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex McFarland is a voice you can trust to speak the timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way. You're listening to Truth for a New Generation Radio.

Welcome back to the program. We're talking about how the church can minister in times of apostasy, times of falling away. And we're going to look at several things that the church can do to minister effectively at this time. But I do want to thank Good Shepherd Church of Greensboro for hosting the broadcast in part. I'm on there Wednesday nights at 6.45 p.m. and Sunday mornings at 10.15. The website GoodShepherdChurchofGreensboro.com. And I want to encourage you also, Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays at 11 a.m. on my Facebook page, which is Rev Alex McFarland. That's R-E-V Rev Alex McFarland on Facebook. I'm on live Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

We're talking about apologetics, Christian worldview, quite a number of topics. And I appreciate the more than 550,000 people that are on our Facebook page. And I encourage you to share.

Listen, if you watch the Monday, Wednesday, Friday Facebook live webcast and you share, you're automatically entered and we give away a book every Friday. So even during this time of pandemic, we've enjoyed just a great, robust, and growing online ministry, seeing people come to Christ and people equipped to defend the faith. One final thing I'll say, I do want to thank The Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, where I will be July 27 through August 1 doing Daniel and Revelation, Bible prophecy, how God writes history in advance. And if you would like to go, you can be a part of that. I'd love to meet you. I'd love for you to be there. And you can register at thecove.org.

And we would love to have you there July 27. Well, we're talking about a time of unbelief, a time of selective obedience on the part of the church, and some things that we need to keep in mind at this time. Number one, the church needs, and we need to project and teach, a solid grasp of biblical truths. We need to talk about the reliability of the Bible, but also biblical authority. How we have a solid grasp on what we believe and why. God's authority. Christ, the head, the head of the church. And we're not free to reinvent truth, because Christ is the head. And we need to talk about the church's mission.

The church is Christ's body, and we've been given a great assignment, the great commission. Secondly, we need to have a clear understanding of conviction versus preference. When we say things like Jesus is deity, the Son of God, that's not mere subjective preference. That is biblical truth. And so much of what now some people look at selectively, as if we're free to just cafeteria style, accept some of the Bible and reject others, that's not how Christianity works. There are biblical realities that we cannot get around. Heaven and hell and Jesus and the atonement on the cross and the resurrection, and only Christ can save. These are not mere preferences or just arbitrary things people have pulled out of thin air. This is the revealed Word of God, and we must amend our lives in light of God's Word.

Because God is not obligated, nor will He amend Himself in light of our misconceptions or unbelief. Number three, we need a consistent commitment to the right things. I came along in youth ministry at a time when conferences were all about the games you could play, and that's fine.

I've played so many games of volleyball and all of the trips to the amusement park, and I know that a certain amount of outreach to young people has to include a part of a fun quotient. But here's the thing. We've got to make disciples, as Spurgeon said, and I quote it so often, we're called to feed sheep, not merely entertain goats. And so, you know the old saying, if the horse has died, dismount. If what we're doing is not really making disciples, we've got to change gears. And I would say this, that our ministry nowadays, ministry in the Western world, has got to be bathed in intercessory prayer. We have to pray, and we have to have the anointing of God on what we're trying to do, or it really won't amount to anything. So a solid grasp of biblical truths and a clear understanding of conviction versus preference. A consistent commitment to the right things. And then we need, number four, wisdom to ask the right questions. And sometimes, you know in business they do what's called a SWOT analysis, S-W-O-T.

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. It may be in your ministry, in your church, maybe even in your family, you've got to ask some hard questions. Is what we're doing biblical? Is what we're doing fruitful? Is what we're doing obedient to the Great Commission? Is what we're doing effective?

And are we achieving our assignment? Which, as we all know, Matthew 28, 18-20, make disciples of all nations. And then the final thing I would say, at least in this time together, there has to be the humility, really the courage, to change where appropriate.

You know, the old joke, and you've heard it I'm sure, what are the seven last words of the church? We've never done it that way before, end of quote. Well, even Truth for a New Generation, my goodness, during this pandemic, 24 speaking events around the country were taken off the books, including the Southern Baptist Convention in Florida that Dr. Dobson and I were going to do in June. And yet, we saw in late February, early March, that all of those things were going to have to be put on the side. And we quickly scrambled to begin increasing our radio coverage and implementing live webcasts, which we're doing and we thank God that they're touching thousands of lives. But often times, we have to be nimble, we have to be flexible, we have to be innovative.

But I would say this, we have to be proactive and prayerful. You know, I live in North Carolina and the very first English colony in the New World was here in North Carolina, Roanoke Island. Sir Walter Raleigh, our state capital is named for him, Raleigh. Sir Walter Raleigh wrote in his Bible, Even such is time that takes in trust, our youth, our joys, all we have, and pays us but with age and dust, who in the dark and silent grave, when we have wandered all our ways, shuts up the story of all our days. But from this earth, this grave, this dust, my God will raise me, this I trust.

He lived 1552 to 1618. Look, there is an eternity. There may be scoffers, there may be doubters, but life is this brief dress rehearsal for eternity.

So know Christ and make him known and TNG will help you, equip you to present, explain, even defend the gospel. May God bless you. Keep us in prayer.

Let us hear from you. You can go to my website, AlexMcFarland.com and then finally let me say, stand strong for God and country. Call us at 877-YES-GOD-1.

That's 877-YES-GOD and the number one. Or give online at AlexMcFarland.com. While you're there, listen to program archives, read Alex's blog, invite Alex to speak at your event, or contact Alex with a question or comment. AlexMcFarland.com. Thanks for listening today and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG radio.