Interview with Ray Moore Pt. 2

Bestselling author, speaker, and advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Bestselling author and apologist, Dylan Burroughs. Together, bringing you truth.

For a new generation, this is TNG Radio. Martin Luther, the great reformer, said this, that he would not advise parents to send their children to any school where the Scriptures did not reign paramount. And Luther said this, that the schools would become the very gates of hell, stealing many a life, many a soul, if education was not predicated on the Word of God. Now I just had the privilege of writing a chapter for a book in honor of a great Christian educator.

We'll tell you more about that later. But I reflected on Proverbs 1, verse 7, that says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise instruction and understanding. Let's talk about what is wisdom, instruction, understanding, and how true education from a biblical Christian standpoint really is based on the fear, the reverence of God.

With me to help in this topic is somebody who I just, I tell you, I really love and appreciate this individual. His name is Colonel Ray Moore. He is a godly man. He's a chaplain. He's a veteran of the First Gulf War. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, and he is the founder and leader of Frontline Ministries. Probably you have heard of Ray Moore through one of their initiatives called the Exodus Mandate, and he is the feature of a new magazine issue, The New American.

Came out February 4, 2019, and the cover story, Rescuing Our Children, and there's an interview with Ray, and a lot of his intellectual content has made up this issue, and it's about the state of the schools and basically the case for Christian education. We're going to talk about this and what the implications are for the future of our country, and I want to, with that intro, welcome you, Colonel Moore, back to TNG, Truth for a New Generation Radio. Thank you, and it's great to be having partnered with you, actually, for six or seven years through your many conferences, and so it's good to be on the show with you today, too. Well, I want to thank you, and you have been so gracious.

Your ministry has bought a booth and exhibit space. Several times. Several, I know.

Well, I mean, maybe eight years in a row. We can't quite remember when we started coming, but we started attending when you were in Charlotte, Spartanburg, and I forget where it was recently. Yeah, we were there in Murfreesboro, that's right. And I thank you because that helps us pay the bills, but, you know, right away I realized that not only were you a faithful exhibitor, but you're a good speaker, and what you have is very important for people to hear, and I want to say, before we get too much into the conversation. Would you like to hear why I like your conferences?

Yeah, please. All right, I know you. Well, you're so kind.

Thanks. I've told you this before. Our ministry, trying to grow K-12 Christian education and homeschooling kind of depends on a person that has an activist approach to things, activist mindset, and I do a lot of conferences. I go to a lot of homeschool, Christian school, Tea Party, all kinds of conventions, and I found that the people that come to your program are aggressive, militant, and they want to get God's work done. So I find that I come in there and share my vision, and they say, wow, we can do this too, because they have a zeal for the Lord and want to get his truth of his word out. So I find it's easy recruiting at Truth For A New Generation. God bless you.

Yeah, so that's why I come. And I give God the glory. Chuck Colson said that too. Ray, I was going over some stuff over the weekend, and I found about five or six letters handwritten from Chuck Colson to myself, very encouraging, and he said, Alex, he said some very nice things, and I give God the glory, but Chuck Colson would often say that the people who came to Truth For A New Generation were the most committed, most resolved to make a difference for America, and we give God the glory. Well, it gives me great pleasure to know that I noticed the same thing he did, since he was such a great Christian leader for his time. Well, you know, and I want to say thank you, because, you know, you're a little older than me, not too much older than me, but you've invested in me and this ministry, and I thank you. I want to ask you this. Over time in life, when a lot of people kind of chill out and take it easy, you're working harder than most 25-year-olds I know.

Why? I've been doing this as a family. We started homeschooling in 77. So 20 years later, we offered the Exodus Mandate as a project, and I was quite confident that God had led me to do that, and I had a lot of certainty, and I had a lot of scripture for it, but in the last few years, I can see that it's starting to gain momentum.

We might actually reach critical mass, which means we might see millions of people leaving and going into homeschooling, Christian schooling, so I just can't quit. I've got to see it through. And so at 75 years old, I feel like a kid waking up on Christmas morning and finding a new toy under the Christmas tree. I shouldn't be so happy and so excited and joyful at my age.

I should be looking to go play golf or do something, but I'm not. It's hard to describe the inexpressible joy I have in doing his work, and it's a job, yes, but it's fun. So when you're doing the Lord's work, even getting paid a little bit for it, it's not work. It's just pleasure. Well, let me say this, and folks, we're going to get into some stats, some facts about the state of public education that you need to hear.

Please stay tuned, but listen to this. In the ministry, I've been in the hospital with some dying people. You have two, I'm sure. Isn't it true, and this is regarding staying busy for Jesus, when you're about to leave this world, you're not going to care what your golf score was.

You're not going to care how fancy a car you drove. In my experience, and I want you to respond, when people are leaving this world, all you'll care about is family and God. What did I do for the Lord?

What did I do for my loved ones? As a pastor, I've noticed that, and so we homeschool our children and intended to put them in a private or Christian school, so we see that they're doing well spiritually. They're walking with the Lord. They're very successful in life, and so I can say, like the Apostle John, I think it was in John, 3 John, he said, I have no greater joy than that my children walk in truth. Now, he was speaking of his spiritual disciples there, not his physical children, but we can say that about our children, and my wife and I have been married 49 years.

I've been in the ministry 40 years, and we're just happy at our age about our children, and I see a lot of pastors and people that are sad in their latter years because they've got prodigal children, and they didn't raise them right. You know, I was, a week ago, with Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, and he built the ark, by the way. We support him, yeah. Yeah, us too, and he speaks at our conferences, and please, go see the ark. Go see the Creation Museum. I assure you. I've been to the museum, but not the ark.

I've been to each one many times. You will not be disappointed, but Ken Ham was saying that the problem is secular education, that we've got an hour of Sunday school and youth group, and then, you know, dozens of hours of secular education, and Ken Ham said that Christian education and homeschool education is the only hope, and this is TNG Radio. We're talking with Colonel Ray Moore of the Exodus Mandate. Stay tuned. We've got a brief break, and we're going to come right back.

Don't miss this. Christians don't necessarily agree with one another when it comes to questions of religious pluralism, homosexuality, the role of government, abortion, and war. Too often, we manage these disagreements by ignoring them. Yet, we're called to engage the world for the sake of Christ.

How can we be effective if we avoid society's most pressing questions? In 10 issues that divide Christians, Alex McFarland challenges us to drill down to the biblical core of 10 current issues, such as social justice, evil and suffering, pornography, and environmentalism, as he echoes the biblical invitation, come, let us reason together. Only by engaging the scriptures deeply, thinking clearly, and speaking truthfully, can we in God's family address our differences and discover the peace that comes with unity of purpose. Ten issues that divide Christians.

Find this book and many others at alexmcfarland.com. 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. Teach me to be humble, call me from the grave. Show me how to walk with you upon the waves. Breathe into my veins until only love remains.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs 1.7. We resume our conversation with Colonel Ray Moore of the Exodus Mandate. And again, he is a major feature in the New American magazine, the February 4th issue. It's amazing. So let's talk a little bit about some of the common objections to homeschooling. And you know, I'll just say this. Last night I was talking with a colleague who has a Muslim coworker. The Muslim family is sending their children to a Christian school because this particular Muslim family was so broken over the state of the public schools.

So even, you know, the Bible warns about the children of the world having more discernment sometimes than the children of God. The public school is so detrimental to the world view, the heart, the values, I'm going to say the soul of young people. And let's talk about the solutions, Christian schooling, homeschooling, the pros, the cons.

Bring us up to speed. Okay. Well, we promote, we're an evangelical Christian ministry. So obviously we're going to favor an explicit Christian program of some kind. So we equally support private Christian schools or what we call church schools and homeschooling that's Christ-centered and Bible-based. However, we would like to see people leave. So if some go into private schools or even secular private schools or Catholic schools or Montessori schools, that's fine because it weakens the state model.

We need to weaken that model and get people out into one of the free market systems. But we would prefer and urge Christian schooling because of what the Bible teaches. Now you ask about objections. The number one objection that we have that we have to deal with, and it's pretty strongly number one, is a false use or the misuse of, excuse me, Matthew 5, 13 and 14 where people will say, my children are in public school to be salt and light. And I have to deal with that constantly.

That's the number one excuse that people use. And we just generally say that that's a general pattern of behavior for Christians in all circumstances. But it's no permission to put your children under pagan, godless, even demonic public education as this exists today.

So I spent a lot of time having to knock that one down. And I've written a little pamphlet called Salt and Light, who is responsible for your children's education, and to refute the misuse of that text. That's the only text I think people try to use. Yeah, and, you know, I think about this. Some parents have said to me, they've said, well, you know, so we're supposed to just let the public school children be lost when we could be. It's a mission field.

I think about a couple of things, and I want your response. For one thing, your child is under secular indoctrination, anti-god, anti-American, anti-creation, anti-traditional values in a public school context. And I know I speak in several dozen a year and I have for 20 years. And listen, I have had, believe me, folks, with public school administrators, public school principals, and even people calling into shows, listen, I've locked horns with the indoctrinaires of the public school systems. But here's the thing.

You don't know that your child is even equipped to swim those shark-infested waters yet. Right, that's right. And the data is that 75 to 80 percent of Christian kids that graduate from secular school have a non-Christian worldview and behavior or maybe even anti-Christian worldview. Now I know counterexamples can be given. Yes, there's always exceptions.

Sure, sure. Now what we would say is that they're not evangelizing. The Christian children are not. They don't have time and access to do it.

And maybe the maturity or the skills yet. Yeah, I mean, and they're just not able to, generally speaking. Of course, some do. But it's a cop-out, it's an excuse. Not even the Christian teachers can get away with evangelization. They get fired if they try to do anything like that. But when I've interviewed Christian teachers for the 18 books I've written, I Give God the Glory, whether it be a college professor or public school teacher, and I've interviewed many, just like you and I one-on-one, interviewed hundreds of people, most of the college professors at secular schools that are Christians, they'll say, �Look, Alex, I want to talk to you, but please don't use my name.

It'll be the end of my job. I can't meet you on campus. Let's go down here for a cup of coffee and I'll talk to you off record.� Folks, you've got to understand, there are some Christians in secular education, but many are fearing for their very career if they express values. If they dare say a word against the gay lesbian transgender movement, if a Christian in secular education were to say, �Gee, I believe males have XY chromosomes and males are males, females are females.� That's your job, brother, isn't it?

Darrell Bock Right. There's cases where a teacher in Southern Indiana was fired because he wouldn't use the transgender, was a male pretending to be a female, wouldn't use the name. He said, �I'll just use the last name.

I'm not going to call a man a woman.� And he was fired because he offered to use the last name only. Darrell Bock And we're to the point, part of the reason that I'm drawing the line in the sand, saying, �Christian families, you will face God one day and you don't want to face the Lord one day knowing that your precious children, you might have been in church, youth group, but then their education for 18 years was given over to the pagans.� Part of the reason that I'm to this point that I really think it's a black and white issue now is this, Ray, because when we speak truth, it's called hate speech. Ray Bournes Right.

That's right. And of course, as you were talking about the Christian children doing evangelism, the pagans are doing evangelism. I mean, they can't speak up. They don't have chance to speak up. And if they do, they're going to have a secular, a pagan teacher that's going to slap them in their place. Darrell Bock Fail them or humiliate them inside their peers. Ray Bournes So it's silly to think that you're sending little children in harm's way to be salt and light. It's just the opposite.

The evangelization and the converting is the other way altogether. Darrell Bock So we've got a brief break, but I want you to give a couple of resources, websites, books, for those that are willing to learn on this. Ray Bournes All right.

Well, we have a website called exodusmandate.org, and there's quite a bit of information there that they could study. Darrell Bock Wonderful. Wonderful. I often say this, Ray, and we've got to take a break. We're going to come back.

Lose at anything else, but win with your children. Ray Bournes Right. That's a good comment. Darrell Bock Stay tuned to TNG Radio. We're back with Colonel Ray Moore in just a moment. Ray Moore, thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you in the next one. Ray Moore, thank you so much for joining us today, and we'll see you in the next one. Ray Moore, thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you in the next one.

Welcome back to TNG Radio. I do want to remind everybody, March 21, Greensboro, North Carolina, we've got our annual spring open house for Truth for a New Generation. It's going to be at the Proximity restaurant.

They're at Proximity Hotel. People are coming in from out of state, but this is going to be so great. We're going to talk about the ministry, what God is doing.

We're going to pray for revival in America. But our very special guest, my dear friend Todd Storns from Fox News, is coming, and you probably watch Storns Country. Let me tell you, he's great.

I often say if Will Rogers and Billy Graham were shaking up in a can, you'd probably get Todd Storns as a result, and he'll be there. You'll get to meet him, be a fairly small group. Here's what I want you to do.

If you want to come see us on March 21, Thursday night, we'll have a great dinner, be special music. Todd Storns and myself will talk about the future of the country. Email Carla at truthforanewgeneration.com, C-A-R-L-A Carla at truthforanewgeneration.com, or call us, 877-YES-GOD1, 877-Y-E-S-G-O-D, the number one, 877-YES-GOD1.

Or of course you can go on the website at truthforanewgeneration.com. You know, talking with Ray, and I want to say before time fleets away, Ray, thank you for what you do as a colleague in ministry, as an American, but just for the role model that you are, because you've got a great work ethic, you know your Bible, and you're doing what you're doing, I believe, for the love of God and the love of people. And it's commendable, and it's very evident.

And so our country needs you in the vital work you're doing. Dr. Darrell Bock I hope we've come to the moment where we're going to see some critical mass in the next three to five years. Dr. Darrell Bock A tipping point.

Dr. Darrell Bock Yeah, tipping point. We started this ministry formally in 1997, so we've been at it officially for about 22 years, and we're seeing so much growth. And this magazine, New American Magazine, February 4th issue entitled Rescuing Our Children is a manifestation of it. This publication has an ability from time to time to have quite a distribution. They put out an issue last year called The Deep State, and I think they had over half a million copies of it circulating in a year, and we hope ours will do as well, maybe even better. And if you think of half a million or a million people reading this magazine, you're going to see some real growth in Christian day schools and homeschooling as a result. Dr. Darrell Bock Sure. Well, it's worth reading.

I would encourage you to do that, the website of this magazine that features you and your work so prominently, TheNewAmerican.com. Let's talk a little bit about the mandate of mom and dad to shepherd the mind and the heart of their child. I think about Deuteronomy 6, 1-4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. But then it says, you know, when you're sitting down, when you're rising up on the doorpost of your house, post the Word of God. I think about Exodus 13, when it comes to pass that your son will ask you, why do we do these things? You know, the Bible does make mom and dad accountable. Dr. Darrell Bock Right.

That's right. And we've researched the Scripture, and we think there's no exceptions. The Scriptures are very clear. There's no ambiguity that the education of children belongs to the family with assistance from the church.

Now, the church does have a role, and the parents do not have to be the exclusive and only teachers of their children, but they have to be involved in it, and they can maybe get assistance from Christian day schools if they don't feel qualified to do homeschooling. The only text that anybody ever tries to use against me is the Matthew 5, 13, and 15, the salt and light text. And it's taken out of context. Jesus never said, put your children in harm's way in pagan education. It's just a general statement of how Christians are to behave.

And then they sometimes try to use Matthew 28 and 20, your children are missionaries, but it's absurd, you know, when they're not even prepared to be, you know, they're not able to do that. Dr. Darrell Bock And let me say this. The Lord knows I'm speaking the truth here. It's been my privilege to speak, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 times at like great homeschool conventions. I think about we did Hartford, Connecticut.

We've done Memphis, Dallas, Ontario, California. All right, I will tell you this. I prepare more when I'm going to speak to a thousand homeschool middle schoolers, high schoolers.

Believe me, I bring my A game, and I'll tell you why. All right, I was doing a session at one of these homeschool conventions, and I was quoting Thomas Aquinas. Some, you know, middle schooler comes up and says, I'm translating Aquinas from the Latin to English. You know, some eighth grader who's in third year Latin, and I said, oh, really? Or if I quote, you know, God and government and the Constitution, or even Bible verses, let me tell you, the homeschool youth are some of the brightest, sharpest, and heaven help you if you don't have your facts right, because they will correct you.

They're a different breed. There's no doubt about it, and we see it in our family because our children just did so well because of their homeschool and Christian school experience. So what do you say to somebody who says, well, you know, if I homeschool my children, they'll be unsocialized?

Well, that's the main reason to do it. The socialization they're getting in public school is negative. I mean, there being learning drugs and sex and everything else, but, you know, in the Scripture, the primary association should be first in your family with your mom and dad, then your siblings, and then those in the body of Christ, your fellow Christians in the church, and then those outside. And that's the order. But if you put your child in a public school, their primary associations are going to be pagans, and it says, you know, 1 Corinthians 15, 33, it says, do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good manners. Manners, that's true. What about the question of if I homeschool or Christian school my children, will they be able to get into universities?

Yes, absolutely. And the university is now recruiting homeschoolers. I know a man that works with Harvard and Princeton and some of the Ivy League schools where they're trying to target really outstanding high SAT scores in homeschooling to matriculate those top universities. They're getting into military academies. My son, as I mentioned, finished the Citadel in 93, and he was regimental commander and valedictorian, which has only happened four times in the history of the school that one student got both of those awards. So they not only get into top universities, Ivy League schools, if you want them to go there, of course, but they get into good universities, and they come out and they do very well.

They're very stable, very normal, and outperform their public school counterparts. Folks, we're about out of time, but Ray, I want to say thank you. Give your website again. All right. Exodus Mandate, one word, exodusmandate.org. Please get the new American magazine February 4th called Rescuing Our Children.

Well, as we close out this edition of TNG Radio, Alex McFarland here with our guest Colonel Ray Moore. I hope you're praying for the country. I am. I hope you folks pray for America. Do what you can do to represent Christ. Be a witness.

Let it begin at home, and let it begin with the cultivation of your own heart, because it matters. And 1 Corinthians 15, 58 says, Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Truth for a New Generation, in association with Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, exists to equip Christians with a biblical worldview through conferences and camps. For information about upcoming events, visit truthforanewgeneration.com, or give us a call at 877-YES-GOD-1. That's 877-YES-GOD and the number 1. TNG Radio is made possible by the friends of Alex McFarland Evangelistic Ministries, P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. That's P.O. Box 10231, Greensboro, North Carolina 27404. Or give online at alexmcfarland.com or truthforanewgeneration.com. Thanks for listening and join us again next time as we bring you more truth for a new generation on TNG Radio.