A Conversation with Lantern Rescue

Today's program contains adult subject matter. Listener discretion is advised. An advocate for Christian apologetics, Dr. Alex McFarland. Dr. McFarland.

Hi, Alex McFarland here. You're listening to Truth For A New Generation Radio. We have a very, very special show. We're going to be talking about life and what each of us can do to stand for life. And Jesus Christ, the Lord of life, the giver of life, the Savior of life, Jesus tells us to stand up for life. And with me to talk about this very important subject, I'm not going to give you his name because we have to preserve his anonymity, but lanternrescue.org is a ministry that is defending lives, saving people out of human trafficking, and they do what the Word of God says they do. They defend those that are enslaved, those that are being abused, those that are being killed and slaughtered and oppressed. Well, Lantern Rescue is around the world, and they are standing up for life.

And so let's just say we've got a real, for lack of a better word, Indiana Jones that's doing courageous work, but they're doing it on behalf of the gospel. So Lantern Rescue, I want to welcome you to TNG Radio. Thank you for making time to be with us. Hey, Alex, thanks so much for having us here and having me here. And man, you've been a wonderful friend and a mentor in your knowledge of the Word. We've had discussions where I've walked away and went, he has a great perspective about different things that I don't even understand myself.

So maybe you don't know that, but that is true. And that is permeated through your ministry and your books and everything, so I'm excited to be on the show with you. Well, I love to see the truth of God really ignite the life of people. And really, and I know this is the case in your heart and soul as well, you come to Jesus and you get saved, and you say, Lord, come into my life, save my soul. But then the Spirit of God grows your understanding of not only Scripture, but reality. Now, your knowledge of the Word of God ultimately led you to what you do. You go around the world and you save lives, you and your colleagues and your team. But that's part of it. The light switches on, and we realize that part of our mission, obviously to share the gospel, but part of our mission is to stand for life, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. When people ask me to speak or they ask me questions, I wish I could just download the images to them, images that have been so powerful over history to change the course of war and the reaction of the American public. I wish I could download into them the headless children I've seen, the dismembered bodies I've seen, the multiple men raping a nine-year-old child, the lining up of customers, the undercover work where I am in a situation where there are minors who are for sale and they are for sale and they're being displayed as such, and this one comes with drugs, this one comes with something else. It is a harsh world that we live in. It is an evil world, and often as Americans we don't quite understand that.

We are kind of sheltered from a great deal of that, and even the ones who maybe think they do know, I'm not sure they know just how evil the world is. Those that are suffering greatly are the children. We started this whole show off with the sanctity of life. Abortion is the highest form of human trafficking in my book because it's commercialized and it always ends in death. At this convention where we are, I was talking earlier about Planned Parenthood, and here's what people need to understand, because we hear so much about racism now and racism is wrong. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, she wanted to exterminate Negroes, just like Adolf Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jewish people. Well, Margaret Sanger, who is like the patron saint of the pro-abortion industry, and it is a lucrative money-making machine, she wanted to eliminate black people.

Now, what more racist sentiment could there possibly be? And you're right, this horrid, unspeakably evil thing called abortion and a business model, it's no secret, and this person I had on the radio was telling me, that Planned Parenthood's target markets are inner-city LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Texas. It's no secret where they go and what they do. Isn't that sad that people would profit from the taking of human life and specifically certain ethnicities? Yeah, absolutely, and it's always shocking because trafficking is such a buzzword now. I think human trafficking, there's categories of it, not levels of it, but there's different categories of it. There's labor trafficking, where someone is an actual slave, and I've seen girls who work 14 hours a day in brickyards, in Muslim brickyards, and then they're sold all night into sex slavery, right? So labor trafficking, sex slavery. Then you've got organ harvesting, is a form of human trafficking. You have forced brides, that's a form of human trafficking. You have child soldiers, that's a form of human trafficking, and I would list another one as abortion, and that's not necessarily recognized, but it's what I like to also point out to people. And there are stats and numbers of what it's worth a year, and it is true that a child, a girl, a boy, a minor, a person is a reusable commodity. When it comes to human trafficking, they can be sold and used over and over and over, and often they're used in all of those areas.

So sometimes our victims are in labor slavery, and then they're in sex slavery, and then on top of the sex slavery, they're being exploited through CSAM material, child sexual abuse material. Hold that thought. We've got to take a brief break. This is Truth For New Generation Radio. We're talking with Lantern Rescue, lanternrescue.org, about this tragic world, but a wonderful opportunity to do what the Word of God says to you and stand for life. The Apostle Peter wrote 1 Peter to remind us that Christians have true and lasting hope in their Savior Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus conquered death in an incorruptible glorified body, we can be sure that our salvation has permanence as we walk through everyday life. The Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove presents Jesus Christ, Hope That Lives, Hope That Lasts for Every Believer, a special three-day seminar with Alex McFarland. Alex will dig into 1 Peter to help you gain truths to live by and assurance to keep going. Come to the Cove near Asheville, North Carolina, July 8 through 10, for three days of in-depth Bible study, fellowship, and refreshing. Jesus Christ, Hope That Lives, Hope That Lasts for Every Believer, a study of 1 Peter with Alex McFarland. Find out more and register at thecove.org. Have you ever wanted to raise your hand during a sermon?

Well, here's your chance. Hi, Alex McFarland here from the nationally syndicated radio program Exploring the Word. For more than ten years, my co-host Bert Harper and I have taught scripture and answered hundreds of Bible questions. We've compiled a brand new book of the top 100 Bible questions from listeners of all ages. From questions about supposed Bible contradictions to apologetics facts that prove the truths of Scripture, this new book features practical content that will make the Bible come alive for you.

Can we really be sure that God exists? Are there contradictions in the Bible? I need a book that will help me understand the Bible better. There is so much good content in this book. One hundred Bible questions and answers published by Broad Street Publishers and available at your local bookstores and also through resources.afa.net. For apologetics resources, books by Alex McFarland, and to find out where Alex is speaking, visit alexmcfarland.com. Welcome back to Truth for a New Generation, by the way. Biblical worldview, one point of biblical worldview is standing for life.

Well, I've got Lantern Rescue with me, and I want to continue and give ample time. Before the break, we were talking, and you used a term that I wasn't familiar with, was it? C-SAM. Is that an acronym? Yes. C-S-A-M.

Right. So over the years in the past, the terminology often that was thrown around in both the court and outside of the court is child pornography. But that has a connotation that the child is participating in it willingly. So our court system has changed that terminology and some of the words that are used out there now and are defined for our penal code is C-S-A-M, child sexual abuse material. We also have Internet Crimes Against Children, ICAC, and then we have even C-SEX, child sexual exploitation material or content. And when we talk about human trafficking, you have that element of commercial element, it can be under force, it can be fraudulent, it can be coercion.

Those are some of the things that we look for when we're defining this. But when we talk about C-S-A-M, it's almost something that people think isn't as bad. But they don't understand those are real children in those images.

That's a real victimization upon that child. So Alex, I would just tell you, the skin on your body would crawl if you knew the volume of C-S-A-M that's being traded in this hotel right now and in this world all around you. We're in the Bible Belt.

We're at maybe the largest hotel in America, 3,000 rooms. You know what, listen to this, we're at a Christian convention, you and I and several thousand people, checking into my hotel and this is a Christian convention. There were people and they had the badge and they were talking about how drunk they were going to get. Now tell me we don't need a revival. This is none of our staff, by the way, this was a different ministry, totally unrelated, they are not on this radio network at all, I assure you. But as I was checking in at the front desk, I was listening to these two men talk about, and I'm not going to use the word they used to describe their state of inebriation. But here at the convention, away from home, down here in Nashville, it's a Christian convention, I think 5,000 people, they were talking about how blind drunk they were going to get while they were here. Do we need a revival?

Do we need a Holy Ghost conviction to fall on us people? We do because it is, you know, the U.S. law enforcement does a tremendous job in fighting human trafficking and the missing children, exploited children, they do an incredible job. But they are very much overwhelmed, understaffed, and under-resourced to handle CSAM material and the trading of it. And it's being produced largely offshore, although it is produced here in the States too. And the child sexual abuse material, CSAM.

Yeah. And it is in the trading factor per minute and hour would shock you. And, you know, our agencies that are focused in on that, I mean, I've seen the incredible work they do, but I mean, they have access to understand every trade. Like, they're going to know every trade of that material.

It's going to get identified by algorithms and software and things and cell phone companies. But they can't even begin to tackle it all. It's just incredible.

Incredible. And adults view this material and get some perverse satisfaction out of this. You know, let me just parenthetically insert this. When I speak at universities, I've had during the Q&A, people will say, well, Christians are against sex. Well, no, sex is a beautiful gift God gave and the context in which it's to be experienced is called marriage. You know, it's funny, I did a masters in developmental psych at Liberty, a double masters.

Half of it was developmental psych. And research over the last 30 years plus shows that the people that enjoy the greatest amount of intimacy, the greatest sexual fulfillment are called married people, heterosexual monogamy, a man and a woman for a lifetime. But look, people go out into these deviant, ungodly places. We think of things like pornography and prostitution. But Landon Rescue, you're telling us that people, when you don't do life God's way, and you fall for Satan's lures, oh, these dark, unspeakable child abuse, these horrid, terrible things. This is something that God gave the human race, but Satan perverted, isn't it?

100%. And what's occurring now, and why I wanted to bring up CSAM on this particular show with Truth for a New Generation is because we are sexualizing the younger people now. And we're giving them cell phones with absolutely no filters, no parameters. And if the parents of America knew, when they all come and say, oh, human tribe, human tribe, what can I do to protect my children? All I tell them is to say, control the phone. You're giving your nine-year-old a phone with full access to groomers, perpetrators, people who are just, all they do all day is look for children to groom and to manipulate, to expose them to pornography, which then kind of begins a sexual desire or interest in them.

And before you know it, you've got a problem like we have today. Now we've got 13-year-old girls who are perpetrating boys because they think the boy wants the picture. They're generally having a five-minute conversation, and the girl's like, do you want to see a picture of me? Because she's been so sexualized from a young age and everything that she's looking at on Instagram and social media, she thinks that's how this plays out. And this boy might be completely like never seen an image a day in his life and is like, no, I didn't, but he probably does now. And the expectation is that that is what occurs in communication online.

And then that makes them very susceptible to the groomers and the people who work in the human trafficking arena who are a 23-year-old who is posing as a 16-year-old talking to a 14-year-old, right? And so that is all set up for them. So hold that thought. We've got to take a brief break. We're going to come back and we're going to talk about, we're going to shine the light in a place of darkness. So stay tuned.

We're going to continue on truth for a new generation in this very special episode dealing with God's response to the cheapening and trafficking of human life. We're going to go away. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this. We're back after this.

We're back after this. Go to lanternrescue.org. I'm asking you please do this for me.

If you follow our ministry and you care about what we do, and I know millions of you do, go to lanternrescue.org. Several years ago on the news there was a story of a woman. She bought a purse, a high-end handbag and she had owned it a while and she saw a slip of paper. You mentioned work trafficking, people enslaved in labor, work until they drop.

This lady buys a nice fancy purse and she finds this slip of paper and it says, help me. We are in a camp. We get like an hour's sleep every 24 hours.

Please help. And it was real. And there was this documentary and they found out a sweatshop.

And I mean people enslaved and if they didn't work, they would be beaten and it was just this living hell. That stuff goes on. Now we here in America, we're very blessed. We wear the fancy shoes. We get the designer clothes.

We enjoy things that are made in China and Asia. But often the fancy accoutrements of our life came at the expense of somebody else's, didn't they? Very much. And not a lot of people know that. I'm surprised you brought that up. That's such a true thing. Okay. And when we talk about it, most people just dismiss it.

But you've really nailed it on the hit. I've been in those camps and those labor facilities and factories where atrocities beyond just labor slavery are happening. I mean they're selling them. They're drugging. They'll sell in Oregon. They'll do anything out of those facilities. And you're right. I mean it is to produce stuff for America. That's the consumer. You know, I'm going to sum up history and time fleets away.

Again, lanternrescue.org. Okay, here's the deal. Satan couldn't kill God. So he's tried to harm the ones made in God's image. That's the basis of all of this, is it not?

It is. And the wars and the conflicts that we have happening right now and the failure of infrastructures of countries, we are seeing children suffer in a way that it's overwhelming. If you and you've been on the front lines around the world and you've seen the exploitation and the killing of human life, what are one or two things that you would ask the American church to pray about?

What should be our prayer at this moment? You ask that right now when we have so much happening in Ukraine, right? Oh, I know.

I know. Don't get, number one, don't get down the conspiracy theories and forget they're a real human life suffering. So it's okay to be open-minded and free to consider what's happening politically, but don't make it that you dismiss what's really happening to the individual person.

Some people say, well, this is a conspiracy. This is happening, so I don't have to be involved. We have to help the children in Ukraine. We have to help the women and the orphans. No matter what we think politically is going on, there are people who are suffering. We can't look at Haiti and say, well, they practice voodoo and it's just their problem.

Sorry. Or have all these theories about why their government collapses all the time and all the assassinations happen. Look, those are great discussions on the table, but you have to turn around. You have to do something to help those who are suffering in those environments. It doesn't excuse not having non-activity, right? So one, don't make excuses. Do something.

Pray about it and look how you can help those who are suffering the most. And then number two is a church. I think churches have to start attacking missions in a different way. I just don't know if the missionary that worked in 1950 is going to make it in 2020.

Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, everywhere is a conflict now. Everywhere is in a civil war.

Everywhere, everybody wants to kill everybody. And I think this has intensified as we're getting closer and closer to the return of Christ. You know, sadly, we're out of time, but I started with 1 Peter 4.8. It says, �Love one another.

Love covers a multitude of sins.� And the Bible tells us that those who deliver a soul from death will be blessed of God. 1 Peter 4.11 said, �God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus. To him be glory and the power forever and ever.� Folks, I don't want you to be depressed and just hopeless, because, look, Jesus is victorious, and when you're on the side of life and truth, you're on the side of Jesus Christ.

So stand strong. We're here to help you do that. I want to thank you for listening to Truth For A New Generation. You can listen to this and share this, and it's on AlexMcFarland.com. Again, thanks to lanternrescue.org for being on the program, but more importantly, for what you're doing for the cause of Christ and the cause of life around the world. Our prayers go with you, and we look forward to when we can visit again. God bless you. Thank you for listening. God bless you.