Podcast appearances and mentions of marty sampson

Promises, promises! We're kicking off a new series this weekend, focusing on 4 keys to building fulfilling relationships. Marriage can be challenging, but it's worth it, and these 4 promises will help you create the relationship you're hoping for. Let's begin by exploring the power of a promise—how can a promise make a difference? And what exactly are we promising? P.S. This fall, we're investing in families through the Alpha Marriage Course—it's the perfect complement to this message series. The Marriage Course begins next Sunday, October 27th. See the details below and sign up today!  Marriage Course October 27, 5PM, Sunday Join us for The Marriage Course! This 7-week course is for any couple looking to invest in their relationship. We'll gather on Sunday nights for food, thoughtful presentations, and space for couples to have private, intimate conversations with one another. Each group is led by a trusted couple from our church with insights into different seasons of life. We kick off October 27: register below to get started! (Childcare and scholarships available). https://capecodchurch.ccbchurch.com/goto/forms/753/responses/new  First time listening to our podcast? We'd like to get to know you! Head over to: http://bit.ly/connectcardccc. Connect with us! Do you have any prayer request? DM us.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capecodchurch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capecodchurch/  Website: http://capecodchurch.com Connect Card: https://bit.ly/connectcardccc  

Every hero has a superpower, which is what makes them, well, "Super." Perhaps you played a game as a child, "If you could have one superpower, what would it be?" Maybe you imagined flying, controlling the weather, or possessing that "man of steel" strength. You get the idea. In real life, there's an often overlooked superpower, and I bet you know people who possess it. Even better, you can have it too. You see, the words we use hold power, and this weekend we'll explore the one thing you can do for better conversations. First time listening to our podcast? We'd like to get to know you!  Head over to: http://bit.ly/connectcardccc. Connect with us! Do you have any prayer request? DM us.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capecodchurch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capecodchurch/  Website: http://capecodchurch.com Connect Card: https://bit.ly/connectcardccc  

Oxford University Press declared it the word of the year… and it's not even a word, not really. Rizz … yep, that's it—Rizz! If you're unsure what I am talking about, find your closest Gen Z friend and catch up.  Rizz is the colloquial next-gen term for Charisma (but don't try this out in public). If you're over 30, or any age, ...it's hard to pull off outside of middle school. Charisma is the slightly undefinable characteristic we all want, and wonder if we have. But maybe Rizz is overrated—charisma too, our Hero story provides a better way. First time listening to our podcast? We'd like to get to know you!    Head over to: http://bit.ly/connectcardccc. Connect with us!   Do you have any prayer request? DM us.    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/capecodchurch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capecodchurch/  Website: http://capecodchurch.com Connect Card: https://bit.ly/connectcardccc  

Being on intimate terms with an infinite God is mind-blowing, yes, and also soul-healing. Today let's explore that amazing paradox! Music: Awakening by Chris Tomlin, Reuben Morgan O Praise The Name (Anastasis) by Marty Sampson, Dean Ussher, Benjamin Hasting Going Down to the River by Sean Feucht Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman, Beth Redman

What causes people to turn away from Christ? Why is it that so many great Christians have given up the faith? Marty Sampson, Joshua Harris, etc. The second half of Jude gives us some helpful words to keep us walking with Christ. In this passage, guest preacher Reggie Lamityi, looks at how we are to look to God, look to others and how God will keep us. If you feel you are impervious to giving up on Jesus, you need to listen to this sermon. If you doubt, there are some great words to comfort your soul.

We are in a summer giving campaign! Would you sow towards the ministry of Morning Prayer? It's Tuesday of Ordinary Time, Proper 8 in the Church Calendar. July 4, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “O Praise the Name” by Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson including a prayer of confession. We'll read Psalms 121, 122, and 123 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture lesson is Acts 8:1-13 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Art: Stanley Whitney. Proper 8 - Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We are in a summer giving campaign! Would you sow towards the ministry of Morning Prayer? It's Tuesday of Ordinary Time, Proper 8 in the Church Calendar. July 4, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “O Praise the Name” by Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson including a prayer of confession. We'll read Psalms 121, 122, and 123 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture lesson is Acts 8:1-13 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Art: Stanley Whitney. Proper 8 - Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prayerandworship/message

It's the Friday after Pentecost, Proper 3 in the Church Calendar. June 2, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “His Glory Appears” by Darlene Zschech and Marty Sampson with a prayer of confession. We'll read Psalm 31 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture lesson is 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Photo by Amine M'siouri. The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday - O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It's the Friday after Pentecost, Proper 3 in the Church Calendar. June 2, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “His Glory Appears” by Darlene Zschech and Marty Sampson with a prayer of confession. We'll read Psalm 31 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture lesson is 2 Corinthians 4:1-12 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Photo by Amine M'siouri. The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday - O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prayerandworship/message

The gospel changes everything about who we are, what we do, and where we are headed! It changes our eternal destiny. What made the gospel possible? What Jesus has done; in other words, the testimony of Jesus. We pray that as we study the gospel together, our lives would be changed for His kingdom and righteousness! Song: O Praise The Name (Anástasis) by Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson. CCLI#: 7037787. Used with Permission.

It's The Fourth Friday in Lent in the Church Calendar. March 24, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “Came to My Rescue” by Dylan Thomas, Joel Davies, and Marty Sampson. We'll read Psalm 8 followed by the Gloria Patri. We'll say the Lord's Prayer and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Art: Sewell Sillman, American (Savannah, Georgia 1924 - 1992 Lyme, Connecticut), Abstraction Collect of the Day - Fourth Sunday in Lent - Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

It's The Fourth Friday in Lent in the Church Calendar. March 24, 2023. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “Came to My Rescue” by Dylan Thomas, Joel Davies, and Marty Sampson. We'll read Psalm 8 followed by the Gloria Patri. We'll say the Lord's Prayer and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Art: Sewell Sillman, American (Savannah, Georgia 1924 - 1992 Lyme, Connecticut), Abstraction Collect of the Day - Fourth Sunday in Lent - Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prayerandworship/message

In this long-awaited episode of your favourite podcast that has been blocked by Lee Strobel on Twitter, I give my thoughts to a video produced by the YouTube channel TreasureChrist (but formerly known as ReformedWiki 2.0) who think that apostates such as Marty Sampson, Abraham Piper, myself and others are making a big mistake! Have I (and others) made a big mistake? Find out! Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD6nbN82NtM –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– For more thought-provoking content, head over to the Tall Friendly Atheist Dad blog at http://www.tallfriendlyatheistdad.com, check out the tweets at http://www.twitter/com/tfadpod, and check out the book "The Best Religion For The Task At Hand" available on iTunes and Google Play. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Music courtesy of Victim Of Illusion from the album “Invisible Light”. Website: https://victimofillusion.bandcamp.com/ Support independent artists such as Victim Of Illusion by purchase their album direct from https://victimofillusion.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-light –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tfadad/message

t's Eve of Epiphany in the Church Calendar. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “HIs Glory Appears” by Marty Sampson and Darlene Zschech. We'll read Psalms 29 and 98 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture reading is Romans 15:7-13 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Photo by modopix. Collect of the Day First Sunday after Christmas Day, Rite Two Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/prayerandworship/message

t's Eve of Epiphany in the Church Calendar. This week we are following the Daily Office lectionary with an episode Monday through Friday. Our general order and lectionary comes from the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. We'll sing “HIs Glory Appears” by Marty Sampson and Darlene Zschech. We'll read Psalms 29 and 98 followed by the Gloria Patri. Our Scripture reading is Romans 15:7-13 . We'll say the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Collect of the Day. We'll then have a time of prompted prayer. If you have a prayer request please submit it here. Sign up here for the email list. Visit Patreon to give and support Morning Prayer monthly. Go to PayPal to give a one-time gift. Photo by modopix. Collect of the Day First Sunday after Christmas Day, Rite Two Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Q: WOULD LOVE YOU TO HELP US UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO DENOUNCE THEIR FAITH AND WALK AWAY LIKE JOSHUA HARRIS AND NOW, SADLY, MARTY SAMPSON. Call or text us your question at 615-281-9694 or email at question@michaelincontext.com.

It's disturbing to hear of those who make a confession of faith and proclaim the name of Christ, only to eventually walk away from Jesus. In late 2019, author and pastor Josh Harris spoke openly about leaving his wife, the church and Christianity. Then there are CCM artists like Marty Sampson who publicly denounced his faith on social media.--The guest on this edition of Crosstalk calls these incidents, -deconversion-. So why is this happening- Is this something new or has this been going on for some time---Joining Jim to discuss this issue was Dr. Ed Hindson. Dr. Hindson is the founding dean of the School of Divinity and Distinguished Professor of Religion at Liberty University. He's the speaker on The King is Coming broadcast. For decades he's been an active conference speaker and has served as the editor of five major Study Bibles. He is the author, co-author or general editor of over 40 books, many on the topic of Bible prophecy including- 15 Future Events That Will Shake the World and Earth's Final Hour.

It's disturbing to hear of those who make a confession of faith and proclaim the name of Christ, only to eventually walk away from Jesus. In late 2019, author and pastor Josh Harris spoke openly about leaving his wife, the church and Christianity. Then there are CCM artists like Marty Sampson who publicly denounced his faith on social media.--The guest on this edition of Crosstalk calls these incidents, -deconversion-. So why is this happening- Is this something new or has this been going on for some time---Joining Jim to discuss this issue was Dr. Ed Hindson. Dr. Hindson is the founding dean of the School of Divinity and Distinguished Professor of Religion at Liberty University. He's the speaker on The King is Coming broadcast. For decades he's been an active conference speaker and has served as the editor of five major Study Bibles. He is the author, co-author or general editor of over 40 books, many on the topic of Bible prophecy including- 15 Future Events That Will Shake the World and Earth's Final Hour.

Paul Maxwell, Joshua Harris, Marty Sampson....Why do celebrities leave Christianity? In this lecture, Dr.Paul explains the main reasons behind leaving Christianity. Please visit us www.doctorpaul.org --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/paulkattupalli/support

Look What God Has DoneCCLI #7143393 | Baily Hager, Harley Rowell, and Sharon Byrd© BailyPromisesCCLI #7149439 | Aaron Moses, Carrington Gaines, Dante Bowe, Keila Alvarado, and Lemuel Marin© 2020 | Blessing, Faithfulness, Goodness, PraiseO Praise The Name (Anástasis)CCLI #7037787 | Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson© 2015 | EasterHis Mercy Is MoreCCLI #7065053 | Matt Boswell and Matt Papa© 2016

True Christian hope in the face of grief comes from believing the gospel of Jesus' resurrection - that God's ultimate plan is to restore our world, our bodies, and our relationships forever at Christ's return. The Second Coming of Jesus — Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, November 8, 2020: https://saintjamesglencarbon.org/2020-twenty-third-sunday-after-pentecost Order of service: https://saintjamesglencarbon.org/wp-content/uploads/st-james-20201108-order-of-service.pdf Psalm 84:1, 3, 9–12 Amos 5:18–24 Matthew 25:1–13 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 Hymns: I Am Not Alone: Austin Davis, Ben Davis, Dustin Sauder, Grant Pittman, Kari Jobe, Marty Sampson, and Mia Fieldes; © Kari Jobe Carnes Music, Worship Together Music, Be Essential Songs, Upside Down Under, Small City Music, A.L.K.D. Music, Benjamin Davis Publishing, and Watershed Music Publishing; used with permission, CCLI license # 20286740. Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending: Text by Charles Wesley; tune by Thomas Olivers; text and tune are public domain. Lamb of God: Text and tune by Twila Paris, © 1985 Straightway Music, admin. EMI; used with permission, CCLI license # 20286740. Before the Throne of God Above: Text by Charitie Lees Bancroft and Vikki Cook; tune by Vikki Cook; © 1997 Sovereign Grace Worship; used with permission, CCLI license # 20286740.

Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber, Marty Sampson, Israel Houghton. What is the common ground between these individuals and why are we bringing them up? Nowadays so many Christian's talk and act like good Christians who are so obedient on public platforms, like podcasts and YouTube, but in reality they are not. Why are Christians displaying this hypocrisy? Join us in this week's episode as we try to make sense of this question, and also talk about the end of our "Where is God?!" series. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Team Players – 1 Corinthians 3:1-23Ultimately, God uses his people to accomplish his purposes. It is foolish to elevate one above another. Instead, we should seek to participate in his work in whatever way he calls us to it, confident that work done for him will last and be rewarded on the final day.He LivesCCLI #7133098 | Anthony Skinner, Chris McClarney, and Jonathan Smith© Capitol | Alive, Forgiveness, Freedom, Glory, Honor, Jesus, Praise, Resurrection, SalvationO Praise The Name (Anástasis)CCLI #7037787 | Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson© 2015 | EasterHow Great Thou ArtCCLI #14181 | Hine, Stuart Wesley Keene© 1941, | Adoration, God's Attributes / Greatness, God's Attributes / Majesty, God's Attributes / Power, Second Coming, WorshipThe Lord Is My SalvationCCLI #7063694 | Nathan Nockels, Kristyn Getty, Keith Getty, and Jonas Myrin© 2016

Today we live in an era where prominent Christians seem to “deconvert” from Christianity. That's shocking enough but what are we to make of it when a loved one who once claimed to be a believer abandons the faith? Keith and Mark make sense of it all in episode 004 of “Keith Crosby: Out of My Mind.” Keith and Mark will discuss the following five questions: You had originally entitled today's discussion “Deconstructing Deconversion” why the change? How does this connect with your previous podcasts on Critical Theory and Education and Critical Theory and the Church—and the Pulpit and Politics. I sensed in a theme in Season One, does this theme continue here? What's the connection? Whether it's a Rock Star Pastor like Josh Harris or the YouTube Celebrities who used to be with Campus Crusade, or CRU, or Marty Sampson, a worship music writer, singer, and active member of Hillsong has publicly denounced his faith on social media—or someone's son or daughter or sibling or parents—or a loved one walks away, the larger questions are: What happened? What do we make of all this? Can you lose your salvation? Are you saying that these people were not saved in the first place? Because people would say that they sure seemed saved… What do you say to a parent or family member who's heartbroken and bewildered by all this? Sometimes, I know from my own ministry, family was never really engaged in a student's discipleship but other times I've seen it where a parent, or both parents did all they could, and their kids walk away. What's your take on this?

Pastor Aaron starts on Romans chapter 8. http://saintjamesglencarbon.org/2020-seventh-sunday-after-pentecost Psalm 103:8-13 Romans 8:1–8 Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 Hymns: I Am Not Alone: Austin Davis, Ben Davis, Dustin Sauder, Grant Pittman, Kari Jobe, Marty Sampson, and Mia Fieldes; © Kari Jobe Carnes Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing); Worship Together Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing); Be Essential Songs (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC); Upside Down Under (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC); Small City Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.); A.L.K.D. Music (Admin. by Watershed Music Group); Benjamin Davis Publishing (Admin. by Watershed Music Group); Watershed Music Publishing (Admin. by Watershed Music Group). Used by permission: CCLI License # 20286740. For Your Gift of God the Spirit: Tune and text, © 1987 Hope Publishing Co. Used by permission: CCLI License # 11373734, 20286740 Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing: Tune and text, public domain When I Survey the Wondrous Cross: Tune and text, public domain

In this episode of The Cordial Catholic Podcast, I'm joined by apologist, speaker, and author Dr. Douglas Beaumont to discuss the phenomenon of Evangelical Christians "de-converting" and leaving the Christian faith. From his research-based perspective, and with the experience of a convert, Dr. Beaumont talks about some of the factors that go into what causes a person to "de-convert" from Christianity. We also dig into some of the fascinating and helpful Catholic responses to these de-conversions including understanding the right place of science and faith, solving problems with biblical interpretation, and understanding how to respond to some of the philosophical objections to evil and suffering. In this episode, Doug and I specifically respond to some of the challenges raised by recent Evangelicals who have left the faith like Jon Steingard from Hawk Nelson, Marty Sampson from Hillsong, YouTubers Rhett and Link, and Joshua Harris. However, this is also a perennial topic so we've tried out best to keep things generalized as well (in case you're listening long after these particular de-conversions).For more on Doug visit his website where you can find more information on his speaking, by his fabulous books, and follow him on his upcoming pilgrimage.For more, visit The Cordial Catholic. Send your feedback to cordialcatholic@gmail.com. For more information about sponsoring the show, keeping this podcast going, and helping me to continue to deliver quality content please visit the Patreon page.  Even $1 or $2 a month can go a long way to helping make this podcast sustainable and will give you access to a special Patron-Only podcast featuring behind-the-scenes content and early access to upcoming material. If you can give $5/mo or more you'll also be entered into monthly draws for fantastic books hand-picked by me.If you'd like to give a one-time donation to The Cordial Catholic, you can visit the PayPal page.Thank you to those already supporting the show!Newsletter pre-roll. Producers Post-Roll: Stephen, Eli, Tom, Kelvin, Susan, and Eyram.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/cordialcatholic)

With Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson very publicly struggling with their faith,  Jason gets real about losing his own faith and how God held him and led him into and even deeper relationship with Christ. If you wonder how it happens, if you're in the midst of it right now, if you wonder where that journey leads, this is a must listen.

In our last podcast, we asked “What in the world is happening to our Christian leaders?” where we addressed the differences between the way that Joshua Harris and Marty Sampson of Hillsong declared their loss of faith. In this episode, we go a little further into what the differences are between sheep, wounded sheep, sheepdogs, […]

(00:00-09:38): Scot McKnight writes in Patheos, “Willow Creek, What’s a Pastor?” McKnight assesses the Willow Creek job description for the pastor vacancy they are trying to fill, and finds some issues. Brian and Ian talk about the dangers of hiring a CEO rather than a pastor. (09:38-19:11): Georgia Fans showed support of rival coach’s wife who passed away from cancer by wearing pink. Coach Blake Anderson expressed his overwhelming joy that he felt and said it was “the classiest thing he’s ever witnessed”. Brian and Ian talk about this amazing story and how sports rivalries can sometimes bring us together. (19:11-30:01): Dr. Michael Youssef joins Brian and Ian to talk about his extensive, half-century long mission work. How has God blessed his ministry journey all over the world? He also talks about his book “Counting the Stars”. (30:01-39:47): “‘Love God, Love People’ Is More Than Your Instagram Bio” writes Carter Heminger. Brian and Ian touch on the points he makes as well as how to act out this simple phrase. How you behave as a Christian is every bit a reflection of your faith. (39:47-50:02): “Baptist College Handbook Authorizes ‘Full Access’ to Students’ Social Media Accounts” writes David Roach in Christianity Today. Brian and Ian reflect on their college careers. Even though they did not have to worry about this thing as a student, they feel strongly against it. (50:02-1:00:20): Close friend of Ian Aaron Niequist tweeted his thoughts on over-stimulus at churches. Are we willing to take time to shut everything off and sit in silence and listen? Ian talks about a moment at his church where they sat in the quiet and wait on the Lord. (1:00:20-1:10:13): If churches can’t satisfy people’s hunger for truth, they can expect more Christians leaving the faith. In an article by Mark Vernon in Christian Today, Marty Sampson and reasons behind his situation are addressed, and the church’s attention to truth and hypocrisy are in the light. (1:10:13-1:16:39): Brian and Ian “Weird Stuff We Found on the Internet”: Women in Missouri can talk with monkeys, and the new requirement for Empire State Building security is swords. We are talking about the YAKshank redemption, while Col. Sanders is officiating weddings. Meanwhile, get these snakes out of these mother loving hotels.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Guest Bios Show Transcript “Why is the Bible full of contradictions? . . . How can God be love and yet send 4 billion people to hell because they don't believe?” And last month, Marty Sampson, a former songwriter and worship leader with Hillsong said he's losing his faith because he couldn't find answers to questions like these. This week on The Roys Report, leading Christian apologist—Dr. Michael Brown—will join me to answer tough questions like these about Christianity. Dr. Brown has spent over 40 years researching and discussing these questions. I really hope you can join us for The Roys Report, this Saturday morning at 11 on AM 1160 Hope for Your Life and on Sunday night at 7 on AM 560 The Answer! This Weeks Guests Dr. Brown Michael L. Brown is the founder and president of FIRE School of Ministry in Concord, North Carolina, Director of the Coalition of Conscience, and host of the daily, nationally, syndicated talk radio show, the Line of Fire, as well as the host of the apologetics TV show, “Answering Your Toughest Questions,” which airs on the NRB TV network. He became a believer in Jesus in 1971 as a sixteen year-old, heroin-shooting, LSD-using Jewish rock drummer. Since then, he has preached throughout America and around the world, bringing a message of repentance, revival, reformation, and cultural revolution. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary (Charlotte), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Fuller Theological Seminary, Denver Theological Seminary, the King's Seminary, and Regent University School of Divinity, and he has contributed numerous articles to scholarly publications, including the Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion and the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Dr. Brown is the author of more than 35 books, including, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood: The Tragic Story of the “Church” and the Jewish People, which has been translated into more than twelve languages, the highly-acclaimed five-volume series, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, a commentary on Jeremiah, and numerous books on revival and Jesus revolution. His newest books are Jezebel's War With America: The Plot to Destroy Our Country and What We Can Do to Turn the Tide (2019) and Not Afraid of the Antichrist: Why We Don't Believe In a Pre-Tribulation Rapture (2019). Dr. Brown is a national and international speaker on themes of spiritual renewal and cultural reformation, and he has debated Jewish rabbis, agnostic professors, and gay activists on radio, TV, and college campuses. He is widely considered to be the world's foremost Messianic Jewish apologist. He and his wife Nancy, who is also a Jewish believer in Jesus, have been married since 1976. They have two daughters and four grandchildren. Show Transcript Segment 1 JULIE ROYS:  Is the Bible full of contradictions? How can God be love and yet send 4 billion people to hell because they don't believe? Welcome to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University. I'm Julie Roys. And today, we're going to be tackling tough questions like these with leading Christian apologist, Dr. Michael Brown. You may remember that about a month ago, Marty Sampson—a popular songwriter and worship leader with Hillsong—said that he was losing his faith. And the reason that he gave is that he couldn't get answers to difficult questions about his faith. On Instagram, Sampson posted—and I quote, “How many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen? Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love and yet send four billion people to a place, all because they don't believe? No one talks about it.” Well, in response, Dr. Brown wrote a gracious, open letter to Sampson. In it, though, he challenged Sampson's claim that no one talks about these things. “What is surprising,” Dr. Brown wrote, “is that Marty seems to feel that ‘no one' is talking about challenges to the Christian faith. ‘No one' is discussing difficult intellectual issues. ‘No one' is engaging the apparent contradictions or interpretive problems in the Bible. I can only ask—with sadness rather than condemnation—‘Marty, what Christian world have you been living in?'” Well, Dr. Brown goes on to note that many people have been talking about these things. And numerous books have been written to address these issues. What's more, Dr. Brown has been participating in scholarly debates on difficult questions for more than 47 years. But I think Dr. Brown hit the nail on the head when he wrote that “What I fear is Marty's shocking lack of awareness of a massive array of solid apologetics material is not his alone. . . . There are probably plenty of other believers who find no outlet for their own questions and concerns, leading to apostacy—or deep, secret doubt—rather than an intellectually sound and vibrant faith.” Well, when I read that, my heart just broke because I do believe Dr. Brown is right. There are good answers to these questions about faith. I've asked these questions. I've sought these answers. And what I found it's that there's really good answers but few people actually discover them.  So I contacted Dr. Brown, who's a friend and a repeat guest on my former radio show. And I asked him if he'd be willing to appear on The Roys Report and answer some of these really tough questions. And he agreed because Dr. Brown loves doing this sort of thing.  Honestly, I can't think of anyone better than Dr. Brown to respond to these questions. For those of you who aren't familiar with Dr. Michael Brown, he's a Jewish believer in Jesus, and the founder and president of FIRE School of Ministry. He's also a prolific author and host of the radio show Line of Fire—and the TV show, “Answering Your Toughest Questions.” Dr. Brown also holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. And he has served as a visiting or adjunct professor at numerous seminaries, including Southern Evangelical Seminary, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. So, Dr. Brown, welcome. I am so glad that you're able to join us.  DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Well, thrilled to be back on the air with you, Julie. JULIE ROYS:  Well, you know, I should mention that the questions that we have today, Dr. Brown, are ones that I've actually gotten on social media by just querying the listeners and followers on their questions. And those of you who don't follow us on Facebook, that's easy to do. You just go to Facebook dot com slash reach Julie Roys. And Roys is spelled R-O-Y-S. And likewise on Twitter our handle is at reach Julie Roys. So, we're going to be getting to, I have a few, a long list of questions. I don't know if we'll get to all of them. But before we go to those, I would love for you to answer the question that Marty Sampson asked because I think these questions are, probably, if you did like a top 10 of questions that are out there, that are challenges to the Christian faith, these would be at the top. So let me just start with that first one about how can a loving God send people to hell who don't believe in Him. DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Right. Well as Marty phrased it, it would be basically, simply for not believing. As if there's no guilt in our lives. As though there are no choices that we make. So the question I would ask everyone is ‘Are you glad that you're here or would you rather have never existed?' Well since the vast majority of people don't kill themselves, that means that we're still glad we've had the opportunity to live. And the second question is ‘Would you like it if God made you in a certain way so that you were basically a robot? Programmed to operate a certain way. No freedom of choice from here to the rest of your life. You can make no choices but you won't suffer.' Everyone say ‘no, let me have my freedom.' I mean that's what we want more than anything–the right to determine my own life. So, if we do that, then we're going to have choices. And there going to be right decisions. There's going to be wrong decisions. There are going to be things that we do that have negative consequences and things with positive consequences. And there is a punishment for sin, and it is death and judgment. Many things don't get fixed in this world. They get dealt with in the world to come. But ultimately God has said, “Listen, the whole world was guilty. Everybody's guilty. Everybody deserves condemnation and judgment. But rather than putting it on you, I'm going to put it on my Son, who doesn't deserve it.” And if you will cry out to Him, you'll find mercy and you'll have eternal life. So, God is going out of His way to say to humanity you don't have to die. You don't have to suffer. You don't have to reap what you've sowed. If we refuse His mercy, we're basically choosing our own destruction, we're choosing our own judgment. Now, there are many other questions. What about those you never heard the message? What about those raised in different religions? All I can say is the God that bent over backwards by sending His son to die for what we did, is a God who's moved by compassion and kindness and love and mercy. And is not vindictive and mean-spirited. So I don't understand how everything works or why but I know that God is not at fault. He's not to blame. And that He has reached out to us with extraordinary love. So when I look at Him, look at Him through the lens of the cross, cause that's the nature of God. He's not vindictive, mean-spirited tyrant. He's not the way Richard Dawkins described Him as a misogynistic petulant, megalomaniacal God—that's not who He is. He's a God who loved us enough to send His son. So, if I reject His mercy, then I'm the one basically damning myself, condemning myself. And the other question is, do we not want there to be judgment in the world to come? If there's sin, if there's injustice, if things have been wrong in this world, do we not want there to be a world to come that fixes the rights and wrongs and sets things the way they should be? So again, I mean, we could go on for hours cause it's a massively difficult question. But the short answer is the way Marty phrased it, misses the whole point. JULIE ROYS:  Well, it reminded me of something, I think it was the late R.C. Sproul said once.  When somebody asked him, you know, what about the innocent person in Africa who's never heard? And his reply is, “I don't think there's an innocent person who exists in Africa or anywhere else on the world.” And that's what you're getting at. We do kind of look at it like, we're innocent, not in need of a Savior because we sort of minimize our sin, don't we? DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Oh yeah. We don't recognize the nature of sin, the depth of sin. And there's so much to say here.  How does it work out with an eternal hell and people boiling forever? I would say, rather than come up with a certain image of hell, perhaps based on tradition, understand that the most hellish thing about hell is the forfeiting of eternal life and separation from God. And that's something that basically people choose. If I don't want to be with Him in this world, why would I want to be with Him forever? And does He have the right to banish those in the world to come who have banished Him in this world. JULIE ROYS:  And we are judged according to what we know. So I think it's kind of hard isn't it? Because none of us know God. We don't know how He judges. And don't you think people will be judged maybe by a little different standard depending on what they know and how much they've been taught? DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Clearly the Word addresses that in many different ways, and sometimes quite overtly, saying that those who know versus those who don't know will be judged more severely. I know when my Dad passed away in 1977 at the age of 63. So here I'm from a Jewish family, not a religious Jewish family but Jewish enough that we didn't believe in Jesus. Was not an option. I come to faith—was a heavy drug user. Begin sharing the gospel with my dad. He starts attending church services. He was proud of his son, he's going to hear me preach or whatever. Started to read the New Testament. And I remember him asking one day, “When am I going to feel something?” I mean he was that sincere and open.  And I thought great. Little by little God's working in his life. And then suddenly he's gone. And what happened before he died? Did God open his heart? By receiving me did he somehow receive the Lord? Is he lost? I mean, these are agonizing questions. It's my father. And I wrestled with it and wrestled with it. And then one day it hit me. How merciful is God to me? How longsuffering is He to me? How patient is He to me? How much does He put up with my folly even now that I'm a believer and seeking to follow Him. That's the nature of a father, my Heavenly Father. He's not schizophrenic. So, on that day of judgment, I know whatever He does will be right. I know whatever His verdict is, for every human being, it will be right. It will be nothing unjust, unfair. Maybe from our vantage point here, things can seem unjust and unfair. But let's look at the whole picture in revelation of God. JULIE ROYS:  Okay, that's Dr. Michael Brown. You're listening to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. We will be right back. And when we come back, we'll tackle that question about isn't the Bible full of contradictions? Stay tuned. We'll be right back.   Segment 2 JULIE ROYS:  Is the Bible full of contradictions? If God is all powerful, then why do bad things happen to good people? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And if you've wondered about conundrums like these, today's show is for you. That's because leading apologist, Dr. Michael Brown, is joining me to answer these difficult questions—which most of you have submitted to us. And so we're going to give him a chance to answer those. And if you'd like to join the live, online conversation about this show, just go to Facebook.com/ReachJulieRoys. Or on Twitter, our handle is @ReachJulieRoys. Also, I want to mention that today, I'm giving away five copies of Dr. Brown's newly-released, revised edition of Our Hands are Stained with Blood. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, Dr. Brown is a Jewish believer in Christ. And this, I've read this first edition of his book, Our Hands are Stained with Blood, and it's an outstanding book chronicling the history of Christians and the Jewish people. And it's a hard read because we have not, as Christians, acted the way that we should have acted towards Jewish people for a very long time. But this is one of those books that I just think is a must read for all Christians. So again, I'm giving away 5 of those copies. If you'd like to enter today's giveaway, just go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway. So, Dr. Brown, before the break I'd said I wanted to answer that second question—that Marty Sampson, this Hillsong worship leader who said he's losing his faith that he asked—which was about isn't the Bible just full of contradictions and how do you deal with that. So, how do you? DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  The first thing is we're not afraid of the question. That's one of the biggest things. That we want to create an environment where people are free to ask questions. It's one thing to be a mocker, a skeptic, and you're just trying to tear down. You have no interest in really learning. You're talking about a sincere seeker or a believer. Many times, they struggle, even fall away from faith because they're not allowed to ask questions. So, first thing we want to say—great question! I love it! I'm so glad you've been reading the Bible that carefully. So there are many apparent contradictions. Some of them go away just by digging a little bit deeper and getting a further understanding. Some of them go away when we realize that we have thousands of manuscript copies, which God has graciously preserved for us of the Bible. And sometimes it's a minor manuscript error. Some of them go away when there's a new archeological discovery or a new linguistic discovery. And then we realize—ahh, okay—this thing seems to be saying something different, that actually different. Some of them confirm the accuracy of accounts. Like apologist J. Warner Wallace points out, famous as the cold-case detective as a policeman. That when he started studying the Gospels and looking at the eye-witness accounts, he said, “these ring true.” Because they're not all saying everything the exact same way. So, when you do investigations and interviews at the sight, say of a car accident, you talk to ten different people who were there. One looking down from the window of your apartment. Another coming the other way in the car. And three people walking on the street. Another in the car behind. Another in one car that got hit. They all tell the story differently. But then there's an internal harmony when you put it all together. That's what often happens with apparent contradictions. And there are others that we just don't have answers for right now. Was there an ancient copyist error that became part of the text–and the original text was accurate? There's a copyist error. Could it be that we just need more historical background? Those that remain as apparent contradictions tend to be very, very minor. Sometimes difference in numbers. How many people were killed in a battle? That Kings says it one way and Chronicles another. But in terms of the overall truths of the faith, none of them are threatened by manuscript error. None of them are threatened by apparent contradictions. The overall message overwhelmingly clear. And here's the other thing to remember. Would the editors that copied, say the Gospels, would they have continued to copy accounts that they knew were completely contradictory? Would people who know each other put accounts out and the accounts are completely contradictory? Is that logical? And if this was sacred to the writers wouldn't they think, oh I got to fix this? This just seems to contradict itself. So often, a lot of it comes from a particular scientific mentality we may have of how stories are told, or how things are related. And that's now the way it would have been in the ancient world. You know, I'll just throw out one little thing. I don't believe the Bible, when it gives us the creation account, which we have in poetic form, in literary form of different kinds. That when you have it like Genesis 1 and then creation references in Job or other things. I don't believe the main goal is to teach science, but to teach us about who God is and how He orders the universe. I don't mean the Bible contradicts science but that the main focus is not to teach us about science. But let's say that the goal of the Bible was to teach scientifically accurate truth. And therefore, it said that the earth went around the sun. That would mean that everyone who lived up until around 1500 or so would've thought the Bible was in error. Because the science of the day taught it one way. And then since then, how many scientists have been, “Oh, scientists are, are sure about this.” And then 50 years later we reverse it? So that's the whole thing. The Bible is timeless and speaking in a way that's timeless. And therefore, uses observational language about the sun rising and the sun setting. Why is that wrong for the Bible to do? But we do it today, even though we do it today, even though we know that the sun doesn't rise and set. So we need to treat things fairly and rightly. But whole books have been written, multiple books, examining Bible contradictions. And the great majority of them go away when you did a little deeper. JULIE ROYS:  Well, and I find when I had this question posed to me by friends who, you know, are skeptics, when they say the thing about contradictions. I usually come back to them and I say, you know what, there are some apparent contradictions in Scripture and I've studied some of them. And I'm just wondering which one bothers you the most? And by and large, they don't know a single apparent contradiction. They've just heard that the Bible has contradictions. But when you look into them, there are good explanations. And, like you said, the ones we're not quite sure about often can be resolved later. Hey, give an example though of one that was seen as a contradiction and then we later found out was not. Or that may just be a matter of different perspectives. DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Yeah so, let's take for example in II Samuel 24, it says that the anger of the Lord incited David to number Israel. And then in I Chronicles 21, it says that Satan incited David to number Israel. And people think these are contradictions. No, Samuel is written hundreds of years before the exile. Chronicles is written after the exile. In terms of dating of books, books that mention Satan by name, or Job, which even though it has an ancient history and ancient pedigree, such to be written much later. My commentary on Job comes out in a number of weeks (inaudible) for years. And then Chronicles was written after the exile and that's when, along with Zechariah, which is at that same time, there's overt mention of Satan. So basically, it's two different perspectives of the one account telling us what happens behind the scenes. God is angry with David. The next account telling us the means by which God allowed David to be incited, mainly through Satan. So, you know, people have asked me that many a time. It's just understand the chronology. Understand that before the exile, when there was so much idolatry in Israel, God could not give a clear revelation of Satan. Even the Genesis account with the snake, there's not clear revelation of “the Devil.” Right? So, if you gave that to Old Testament Israel, they all would have worshipped the Devil. Cause he's pretty powerful. He's the one bringing all this bad stuff on them, we should follow him because he can lift it off. So, it was only after the exile, when idolatry was largely purged from the nation, that God could give a further revelation. And then take us behind the scenes. And now by the time we get to the New Testament, all of it is come out into the open.  JULIE ROYS:  Well, I want to go to the questions now that were submitted by folks. And we only have like a minute and a half left. So I'll probably have to pose this question and we'll wait ‘til the next segment for you to answer it. But Kim Zody Ruppert, she writes:  “Is God really omnipotent and in charge of all things? If so, why when bad things continually happen to good people and the most faithful, do we say that the devil is at work or it's their doing and not God?” It's a little bit similar to what you just answered. We have about a minute if you want to start tackling that. DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  Right, so let me again, big questions.  But here's the short answer. God in his omnipotence has given us free will. God in his sovereignty has given us choices just as He gave the angels choices. So when we see things happening that are contrary to the revelation of God and Scripture, but rather have the nature of Satan, who is a liar and murderer by nature. And who is a destroyer and who's a tempter and a deceiver. That's when we see the enemy at work. God does not deceive us. God does not tempt us. But these are things Satan does. Even in the book of Job, it's Satan who goes out and does these horrific things to Job who was a righteous man. So we recognize the marks of Satan. And what are we told in Scripture? Resist him, steadfast in the faith. Ephesians 6—put on the armor of God. James 4—resist the devil. I Peter 5—resist the devil. So, we're at war. There is a battle. That's the way God in His sovereignty set it up.  JULIE ROYS:  Well, that's apologist Dr. Michael Brown. I'm Julie Roys. You're listening to The Roys Report. We will be right back after a short break. 3rd segment   JULIE ROYS: Welcome back to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University.  I'm Julie Roys.  And today, we're tackling skeptics toughest questions about Christianity with leading apologist Dr. Michael Brown. So, if you've wondered how Scripture could say that God wishes no one to perish, but at the same time says that some were created as objects of wrath—you're going to want to stick around. We're going to get to some of these tough questions. Also, if you're just joining us and you want to catch the complete show, you can do that. After the broadcast, I'll be posting the entire audio as a podcast to my website, JulieRoys.com. Also, today, I'm giving away five copies of Dr. Brown's newly revised edition of Our Hands are Stained with Blood. This is a book retelling the tragic story of the church and the Jewish people and is a must-read for every believer. So, to enter that contest, just go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway.  So, Michael, a listener, Michelle Lane, she wrote, “Many verses speak of election, and that God chose certain people and created others for destruction. And Paul's answer to the question, ‘How can it be your fault because who can resist His will?' is simply, “Who are you to question God?” But in other parts, it says things like God isn't willing that any perish, that He loves the whole world. So how can both these things be true?” DR. MICHAEL BROWN: Alright, so a Calvinistic answer would be that when scripture says, “God loved the whole world,” it means people from all over the world. And that Jesus did not die to save the whole world, or to make salvation possible for the whole world, but rather to save the elect. And, “I'm not willing that any should perish” would mean that not any of the elect would perish. So, for Calvinists, that's how it fits. They would say 1 Timothy 2, that you should “pray for all men to be saved” means “all classes of men.” 2 Peter 3, which I just quoted, “not willing that any should perish” means “any of the elect.” And I was a Calvinist for 5 years—1977 to 1982. And I embraced these arguments, and especially Romans 9 seems to state things very plainly. But first, Romans 9 is not dealing primarily with Salvation issues but rather called to service, if you'll read it through. That's the first thing. The second thing is Paul is challenging an attitude. Alright, Paul is challenging an attitude by saying, “What if?” “What if this was God's plan?” And “What if this is how He did things? And who are you to argue against God?” In which case we all shut our mouths, we all fall down on our faces and say, “let God be God.” But if you keep reading until the end of Romans 11, Paul's conclusion is God has shut up all men in disbelief that he may have mercy on them all. And someone might say, “‘all' just means ‘Jews and Gentiles.'” Yeah, that's the whole world—who is there outside of Jews and Gentiles? And in 1 John 2, where John says that Jesus is not just the propitiation for our sins but for that of the whole world. So, I understand election in terms of God chose before the foundation of the world that He would for the whole world that He would have a people in His Son. And He was working throughout the world to bring that to pass. And to be part of that elect group, you must respond to His offer of grace. So, salvation is all by grace—we can never pat ourselves on the back. We're saved by grace; We're kept by grace; It's God's goodness, grace and mercy from the beginning to the end. We understand that. And yet, John 1:12, “As many as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the children of God.” And Paul makes plain in Romans that faith is not a work. So, the Word of God comes, faith comes by hearing, Romans 10. Faith comes alive as we hear the word now. But we receive God's grace or reject it. If we reject it, we will not become part of that elect company. The election is in His Son. We are then chosen in Him. That's how I understand the chosen-ness and the election. And therefore, it all works out in terms of those verses. There's no contraction between them. JULIE ROYS:  So, let me ask another related question. Daniel Haaning wrote in. And he said—this is a question about you, specifically—but he's charging that you teach a “faith plus works false gospel.” That you don't believe “once saved, always saved.” How do you respond to him? DR. MICHAEL BROWN: I teach the biblical gospel as best as I can. And what's interesting is that “once saved, always saved” is something that large parts of the body don't believe and have never believed. Salvation is all by grace, through faith. But God does not force you to stay in His house. I just have to ask Daniel, what about all the verses that warn us against falling away? Do we throw those out? Are they unreal? Is Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 and Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 12—are all those verses about the danger of falling away not real? When 1 Peter 2 warns against it, when Jesus says, “If you deny Me, I'll deny you.” So, “salvation by works” would be, “I have to add my good works to God's grace. I have to try harder; I have to pray more; I have to be super-holy; And if I don't work hard enough, I don't get in.” That's “salvation by works.” “Salvation by grace” is “God freely forgives us; He empowers us to live a Godly life; And if we refuse His grace, and choose to walk away, we have forfeited it.” That's not “Salvation by works.” And what we do know is God calls us to holiness. And the idea that some have—I'm not accusing Daniel of this—that some have, in the “once saved, always saved” camp, is that once you pray a prayer and say, “Lord forgive me,” no matter what you do, no matter how you live, you get in. That's not the gospel. The proof, as James Minoy says, “The only proof of new birth is a new life.” And Jesus says in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of My Father.” So, God gives us the grace to do it, empowers us to do it, calls us to do it. On my worst days as a believer, I'm still saved. If I did something stupid and died that moment, that sin doesn't damn me. We're not saved by our good works and good efforts. But if I refuse God's grace, if I deny it, if I walk away, if I say, “I choose sin and I no longer want You,” He doesn't force me to stay in His house. That's not “salvation by works.” That's me rejecting the grace of God. I live by grace in the love of God 24-7 and never ever-ever-ever worry about losing my salvation. Because He's promised to keep me. And I love Him. But, should some insanity of spirit happen to me, and I decide I'm just going to walk away, those warnings are going to warn me very clearly. JULIE ROYS:  Well, and this is the classic debate between Calvinism, which you referenced, and Arminianism. And Calvinists would say that you can never fall away. But if someone does fall away, then they'll say, “Well that person was never a believer to begin with.” But as the Arminian would say, “No, this person walked away.” There's a sin of apostacy. It's a difficult question. And I think sometimes theologians like to wrap it up with a really neat bow and, you know, a nice clean box. And I'm not sure it does. But I do believe, wasn't it Martin Luther who said that we're saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone?  DR. MICHAEL BROWN: Yeah, and here's the other thing. Calvinism is not, “once saved, always saved.” As you exactly stated it, Calvinism is, “perseverance of the saints;” That someone that's truly saved will not ultimately fall away; If they backslide, they'll return; If they do fall away, they were never truly saved. I'm not a Calvinist, but I don't find that dangerous. I just believe you can rob someone of their assurance in the here and now because you think, “I don't really know if I'm in ‘till I get to the end.” But to me, I don't even debate the doctrine. What I say is this: Do you want the Lord? Do you want Him to be your savior? Well He's going to keep you. Don't sweat it. Don't worry about it. If you think, “I can do whatever I want. I'm going to leave my wife; commit adultery; Do this; Do that; Get drunk; Get high and just live however I want; And experiment with different religions that I'm still in.”  No, no! Be warned. JULIE ROYS:  That's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Absolutely. Well again, that's Dr. Michael Brown. I'm Julie Roys. You're listening to The Roys Report.  And we will be right back after a short break. Segment 4: JULIE ROYS:  Well, how do you answer challenges to the Christian faith? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And today, we're tackling some of the toughest questions concerning Christianity from listeners like you. And joining me to do that is leading apologist, author, and founder of the Fire School of Ministry, Dr. Michael Brown. And if you want to connect with directly with him, just to go ASKDoctorBrown.org. And also, I want to underscore that we're giving away five copies of the revised edition of Dr. Brown's book, Our Hands are Stained with Blood. And to get that you just go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway. Again, Julie Roys dot com slash giveaway and you can enter the giveaway for that book. And also, at my website JulieRoys.com, we will have audio of this show so you can share it with friends afterwards or if you missed any portion you can go back and listen to it. But Dr. Brown what I'd like to do now is, we do have a lot of questions, and I think we've been taking, you know, more time with some of these but we're going to hit some of these quickly now. So, let me just fire some away. The first one is by Verna Adams-Pobo, and she writes, “What is the point of praying when God will answer according to His will? What is the point of praying in faith, believing God for the answer and still He does not answer?” DR. MICHAEL BROWN:  First, when we pray, we spend time with God. We become influenced by Him, we draw close to Him, we fellowship with Him, we lean on Him, we talk and so prayer is communion. But secondly, God's will is that He responds to prayer. Many things don't happen because we don't pray. Many things don't happen because we don't pray in faith. God's not going to do everything He wants to do without us because that's how He set it up. So, for example at the end of Ezekiel 22, He said He was not going to pour out His wrath if He found one person interceding. He couldn't find any and so He poured out His wrath. James the fourth chapter says that you don't get because you don't ask and then when you ask, you ask, you ask consumed in your own lust. So, when we ask according to the Father's will, we ask in faith. Not only do we commune with Him, our faith is built up as we see Him answer. And when we don't pray, we don't see answers. One of my friends, many years ago, said, “When I pray, coincidences happen.” It's just one of those things.   JULIE ROYS: (Laughter) Okay, this question is by Kevin Hander who says, “Did Jesus know when He was young, who He was or did He at some point have it revealed to Him? I know what I think but I'd like to hear it from a scholar. What do you think?” DR. BROWN:  Right, well, we know when he's 12 years old that He's conscious of God being His father in a unique way. That's clear. But I don't believe that when He was a baby, when He was an infant, that He knew every language on the planet. That He could tell you Einstein's theory of relativity, that He knew every verse of the Bible before it was written. I believe He developed as a human being. I mean, Luke tells us about Him growing in wisdom and stature. So, my understanding is at some point in His development, as He's meditating on Scriptures and communing with God, He begins to get a revelation of who He is. So I don't think it just happens one moment but a rising of consciousness in studying of Scripture, communing with God, He becomes more and more aware of who He is and the fullness of His mission. But as far as I know, we're still speculating on that answer. What's your take, Julie?  JULIE ROYS:  I tend to go towards the line that He knew from the very beginning. But I guess I've never really thought about it that deeply. I've never had that posed to me before. But since He was fully God and fully human. DR. BROWN:  Was He able? Right, right, but was He fully human? In other words, was there any willful setting aside of certain divine prerogatives? Did he fake when He was like, “Ima, Abba.”  Was He faking that? You know, was He . . .?” JULIE ROYS:  Right, He must've been bound by His own humanity and His cognitive, I mean, development. I mean we know a baby, an infant, can't even think full thoughts. So, I would say that. But I would say, I would more tend towards that He was aware of it by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from the very, from as soon as He could cognitively, you know, be able to know that. But maybe not, I don't know.  DR. BROWN:  So, that's something—does a two-year-old grasp that, four, ten? That's what I'm saying. To me it's something that grows. The other thing is we know He gets hungry, tired, grieved, in other words He has physical limitations. He has human emotions. So, anyway it's an extraordinary question. It's a wonderful question and one that's worth Holy meditation.  JULIE ROYS:  Yeah. Well, here's a related question to that. The idea that Jesus never thought He was divine seems to be coming up a lot lately. Would love to hear what you have to say about that one. DR. BROWN:  Yeah, well John's gospel is obviously the clearest place to go. We know in the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—He talks about “for this reason I came” or being sent. There's that consciousness. That no one can know the Father except the Son and those whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. There's a certain stature He has. And in Matthew 28:19 and 20, the Great Commission, He's included in the baptismal formula with the Father and with the Spirit. I mean, how'd He get there? Why do you baptize in the name of a glorified man? But then in John's gospel, very clearly in John 8:58, He does says, “before Abraham [was], I am.” So not just pre-existed but that identifiable, “I am, I am He” before Abraham. We know in John 10, He and the Father are one but in a unique way so that in John 14, He says that “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And then we know in John 17, He speaks of the glory that He enjoyed with His father before the world began. And then in John 20 when Thomas falls to his feet and says, “My Lord, my God,” He doesn't say, “Don't say that!” It's like, now you finally get it! So, if you've seen Him you've seen the Father. That's out of the Lord's own mouth.  JULIE ROYS:  Yeah, I don't know how people could say He wasn't aware He was divine. To me it's pretty clear throughout the Scriptures that He does. So here's another one. Zacharias Rivera asks, “Many ask how we could base what we believe in solely on what the Bible says but can we really trust the Bible?”  DR. BROWN:  Yes, we can really trust the Bible on several levels. One is when it lays out for us the history of the people of Israel—scattered among the nations and then regathered back to the land in unbelief. Somehow miraculously preserved even though disciplined. This never happened. No people has been out of a homeland, as a nation, for century after century, in country after country and then somehow maintains an identity and then returns to the ancient home. This never happened and yet God sketches it out. The fact that Jerusalem will be the center of world controversy. How did God know that if it's not God? How did the prophets know that? You have those things. The ongoing relevance of Scripture, in every generation, in every culture, is miraculous and unprecedented. But to me the biggest proof is not just the prophecies, the messianic prophecies, things like that, which are striking and amazing. And clearly point to the Divinity of the Book. But God has spoken certain things to us about who He is and given us promises. And when we really cry out and when we really seek Him, and when we really lean on Him, He does the things that He promised. It's not we just snap our finger and we don't get all the miracles we want to get. And people suffer and we don't have answers for everything. But ultimately the God of the Bible, saved me, changed me, transformed me and has been with me in amazing and extraordinary ways now for almost 48 years. So, I trust the Bible because I've come to know the God of the Bible. And then in studying the Scripture, now intellectually as well, I can trust what's written.  JULIE ROYS:  Hank Kruse asks, “Why does a loving and all- powerful God allow evil to exist?” Why not just wipe it all out? DR. BROWN:  Yeah, yeah. Well, if he wiped it all out, he'd wipe all of us out as well. And if, should He have wiped me out when I was a heroin shooting, LSD using rebel, stealing money from my father. I was evil then. The fact is, if He's going to create beings that can love Him freely, He has to give us free choices. And with free choices we can choose to obey or disobey. When we choose to disobey, evil is then actualized. So, God will ultimately judge and deal with it but right now, it's for the best of the human race that He doesn't wipe out evil. Because if he wiped it out, none of us would be left. That would be the end of the human race. He is patiently working to bring people to Himself. Love can't be coerced. Love must be freely chosen. Therefore, we're going to choose good or evil. But God is working in the midst of evil to perfect us, to strengthen us, to try us and test us so that we can grow and become something that we never could have become if not for passing through this difficult fallen world.   JULIE ROYS:  I remember once, my husband and I used to do a lot of youth ministry and we used to hang out at Denny's. And this is back when people were allowed to smoke at Denny's all the time. And these high school students would show up and they'd be smoking away. And I remember just asking the Lord, you know, preserve my lungs somehow through that. But I remember one of these students came up very, I mean just angrily saying that, you know. “Why did God?” (And He referenced the Holocaust, you know). “Why did God allow that horrible thing? Why doesn't He wipe out all evil right now?” And I said to him the same thing that you just said, you know. “So you'd like him to wipe out all evil right now, you know, immediately?” And he said, “Absolutely.” And then I asked him, “Are you without sin?” And I said, “So.” And he said, “No.” And I said, “So He'd have to wipe out you.” And I don't think he'd ever thought about that. And I think, again, it's you know, it's back to that other question, you know, about the innocent person. We just lose a sense of our own sinfulness. I think especially in this day and age it's something that we've just moved away from. We really don't recognize our sinfulness. We judge our holiness based on, sort of like, God grades on a curve. Like where everybody else is and we just miss it. We miss God's holiness. And I think it's really devastating to our entire worldview, so.  DR. BROWN:  And, you know, the other question is—let's say it's only the really bad people, you know. Where do you, where does one draw the line? And then when they're all gone and you saying the other people aren't going to commit evil acts? You know, that's the tragic, and shocking, and unbelievable thing. The most monstrous acts we ever hear of—the horrific mass murdering of the Holocaust. The torturing of a little child and burying them alive. Whatever these things that take place today. Unimaginable! Those are fellow human beings! And then when we search our own hearts, no we're not thinking of things like that but how wrong have our attitudes been or how proud have we been or how judgmental or lustful or greedy or selfish? Those are evil things in God's sight. What about gossip? Here, if God was going to wipe out evil in the world, let Him just look at Christian social media for a month and we'd all be gone. Cruelty, the ugliness, the bigotry, the gossip, slander. That's who we are. So, I'm very thankful for God's patience. I'm very thankful for His mercy.  JULIE ROYS:  Well, here's one not specifically about the faith or the gospel but I think one that's worthy of an answer. We only have about a minute or so left. But, someone, Brandon asks. He wants to know, as someone who works across denominational lines, what you believe is the greatest problem or challenge in the American church today and what you recommend be done about it? DR. BROWN:  Well, the overall to me, the overall greatest problem in the church is lack of consciousness of God. We are very secular, earthly, worldly in our thinking. We know how to do it, make it happen. If we were much more God conscious, we'd walk more in the fear of the Lord. And with that, there'd be a greater unity. But as far as denominational lines, and things like that, there is often a lack of honor and respect for others. I'm talking about within the Body. There's often a lack of recognition that you have something I need and I have something you need. So rather than being so prideful that we think we have it all, let's recognize we need each other. And in a day and age like today, when the faith is under such assault from so much of society, we really do need each other. And if we can still have our differences, still have our distinctives but humble ourselves and say hey what can I learn from you, how can I help you? Then I think we'll do much better to come together. Major on the majors and let us have our own little distinctives where we they fit.  JULIE ROYS:  Oh, Amen. I so agree with that. Well, just to wrap up. In Luke, the gospel writer says, “I have carefully investigated everything from the beginning so that you may know the certainty of the things you've been taught.” You know, I truly believe that God can handle our questions. And He wants to answer these tough questions so that our faith isn't a giant leap, but maybe more as my grandpa used to say, “It's more like a small step based on prior experience and evidence.” Just want to encourage you. Keep seeking answers if you don't have them. Again, my thanks to Dr. Brown for joining me today. And just as a reminder—if you missed any part of this show, you can get it at JulieRoys.com. Hope you have a great weekend and God bless!   Read more

Guest Bios Show Transcript “Why is the Bible full of contradictions? . . . How can God be love and yet send 4 billion people to hell because they don't believe?” And last month, Marty Sampson, a former songwriter and worship leader with Hillsong said he’s losing his faith because he couldn’t find answers to questions like these. This week on The Roys Report, leading Christian apologist—Dr.

Guest Bios Show Transcript When a society denies human depravity and sin, the results can be absolutely devastating. And this week on The Roys Report, we'll be exploring what led to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which claimed the lives of 17 people. Joining me will be Max Eden, an author and investigator who says the shooter clearly communicated his murderous intent. But instead of expelling him, the school sought to heal him, and to correct the “injustices” that it believed caused his violence. I really hope you can join us for The Roys Report, this Saturday morning at 11 on AM 1160 Hope for Your Life and on Sunday night at 7 on AM 560 The Answer! This Weeks Guests Max Eden . . . is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Before joining MI, he was program manager of the education policy studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. Eden's research interests include early education, school choice, and federal education policy. He was coeditor, with Frederick M. Hess, of The Every Student Succeeds Act: What It Means for Schools, Systems, and States (2017). Eden's work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, such as the Journal of School Choice, Encyclopedia of Education Economics and Finance, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, National Review, Claremont Review of Books, and The Weekly Standard. He holds a B.A. in history from Yale University. Show Transcript Note: This transcript has been edited slightly for continuity. Segment 1 JULIE ROYS:  Well, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. But according to my guest today, it was also the most preventable. Welcome to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University. I'm Julie Roys. And today, we're examining what led to the school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. That shooting in Parkland, Florida, claimed the lives of 17 people. But my guest today says the shooter was a psychopath with an established pattern of violence and murderous intent. But administrators did nothing to stop him. Why? Well, in part because of career ambition and bad, liberal policies. But more fundamentally, because administrators had a faulty view of both reality and mankind. My guest today is co-author of a new book Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students. This book is already a number-one best-seller on Amazon and it actually doesn't release until Tuesday! But I've been able to read a pre-release copy. And what this book describes is absolutely shocking. When he was just 2 years old, the Parkland shooter—Nicolas Cruz—reportedly tossed a 4-month-old baby into a pool. In pre-K, Cruz had to wear a restrictive harness just to ride the school bus. In middle school, he made a video of himself drowning a cat. In high school, Cruz was constantly talking about guns, a desire to kill, and even to cannibalize other people. He vandalized Stoneman Douglas High School, left death threats, attacked other students, and brought weapons to school. But instead of expelling Cruz, administrators tried to manage his behavior. And instead of arresting him, administrators and police minimized his behavior. Again, the question is why? Why didn't administrators or someone in authority do something? Well, joining me to discuss this is Max Eden. He's the co-author of Why Meadow Died. He's also a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute who's done extensive research on education policy and school discipline. So Max, welcome! It is a pleasure to have you! MAX EDEN:  Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Julie. JULIE ROYS:  So, Max, help us understand this mind-boggling failure that led this school to really ignore all of these red flags and allow this violent man really free reign to wreak havoc there at the school. What happened?  MAX EDEN:  Yes.  It's a big story to tell. So I think it might be good to start with a little bit of what happened with him in middle school—a little bit of what happened with him in high school. Which both cases relate to broader themes and as you said it's kind of a misconception of the notion of man, that is kind of reigning in the way that schools look at kids, right? And in middle school, the student, his behavior was recorded. He was suspended every other day for a calendar year. He was talking about guns and any chance he could get he was threatening students. He was talking to them about skinning animals. Teachers were so scared of him that they eventually said that he can't walk anywhere in school without a security guard next to him. And when that wasn't enough, they called his mom to have his mom walk with him and the security guard in school. This went on for a year, at this level, before they managed to transfer him to a specialized school. And that relates to, you know, the way that schools view disturbed students as having a disability and requiring a whole lot of paperwork to properly and scientifically manage rather than understanding that, you know, there is evil within some young men and some young women. So yeah, we can talk more about that later. The other, kind of starting point is what happened with him in high school, in which case his behavior wasn't recorded. We have security staff; you have teachers saying he was brought to the office all the time. But you don't see a record for him. You have students saying we told administrators that he threatened to kill us. And you don't see a record of that either. You know, the only time he was officially disciplined, in his first semester, was a time when his normal assistant principal was off campus. And then they took him drawing swastikas on lunchroom tables, labeled it vandalism and did nothing further. That relates to this pressure to try to fix the so-called school-to-prison pipeline by lowering suspensions, lowering expulsions, lowering arrests, basically pressuring school administers to show that there are no problems, in reality, by not recording them. And so, every step of the way, there were these decisions that were made that were obviously grossly irresponsible but made perfect sense given the policies and the policies made perfect sense given the kind of ideology that was reigning in the Broward County schools. And is becoming ever more pervasive across American education in general. JULIE ROYS:  Well, yeah, you're right. Reigning in Broward County but the reason we're talking about this is because you would think after something like this happens, administrators would go, “wow this was a big mistake. Let's make sure we're not doing this anywhere in the country.” But it's kind of the exact opposite. This is reigning throughout our schools. And you're right. There's this ideology behind it. And it's one that doesn't recognize evil. It seems to me, it sort of paints evil as not something as we understand it in the Judeo-Christian world view, that it's something that is from the depravity of mankind. Our rebellion against God. That we are fallen creatures. But now evil is something that's sort of a social construct and it's often because of the oppression that we've experienced and so we have these social justice policies that are instituted in the schools. One of them, I understand, this Promise Program actually keeps students in public schools from being reported to police, being arrested for crimes that they should be arrested for. That would have given, Nicolas Cruz, the shooter in Parkland, an arrest warrant so when he went to get a gun, he wouldn't have been able to. But they didn't do that because of this Promise Program. Describe that program—where it comes from and how it was instituted. MAX EDEN:  Yeah, so, I'll start with the program and get to where it comes from and work our way back to the ideology behind it, right? The Promise Program on paper, basically gives students 3 free misdemeanors every single year. So your 4th misdemeanor in a given year, you can then finally talk to the school resource officer. Whether or not the school resource officer does anything is still open. But 3 free misdemeanors a year instead of being introduced to the juvenile justice system. And you go to this alternative education sight for a few days where, you know, nothing really happens. In reality the leader there was a horrifically abusive woman who demeaned her colleagues consistently and was eventually removed. But when you give kids 3 free misdemeanors a year and when you also, you know, on the side literally train principals to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement or refuse to let law enforcement on campus, if they're trying to execute an arrest warrant, then arrests will go down.  And if your view of, you know, your view of men, your view of kids, if you look at these spreadsheets where you see African American students, students who are designated with disabilities, are “disproportionately” disciplined, disproportionately arrested. If when you see that you don't admit that this behavior can have a root in, you know, what is going on within the child, that can have roots in what's going on in the child's home and society around them. Then these disparities become entirely inexplicable in any way other than this must be the school's fault, you know. This must be a product of institutional racism, institutional oppression—that the school and the police are, you know, actively pushing on innocent young men and women. And if you think that, then there should be no cost to dramatically decreasing arrests. But, you know, it's not quite the case. The Promise Program was a national leader in this. It was the diversionary program and then all these other leniency policies around it which are very quickly taken by the Obama Department of Education. Superintendent Arnie Duncan, who was a former colleague of Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie, and he saw oh arrests are going down. This looks great. These disparities are being closed. This is clearly working. And he took this policy and made it into a federal guidance document that basically threatened and coerced school districts across the country saying if you don't follow suit, by trying to get all these numbers down, we will come after you. And we might take away your money. And so the ideology behind it that started as a more a contained thing, you know, used to be just the province of some academics has now become those functionally and also ideologically kind of de rigueur for public school across the country. JULIE ROYS:  So, it is instituted all over and Arnie Duncan,  those of us listening in Chicago where this show originates, know that name. He was very instrumental here in Chicago then goes to the federal government and institutes a lot of these programs.  Again, this was under the Obama Administration. But is it still happening right now? MAX EDEN:  Well, the federal push for it is no longer happening. After the Parkland shooting, the Trump Administration made a School Safety Commission to investigate what went wrong, issue recommendations. One recommendation was to stop pushing these policies at the federal level. So the Department of Education is no longer threatening school districts to implement these policies but that doesn't mean that they're going anywhere.  JULIE ROYS:  Right and they have the same administrators. MAX EDEN:  Oh yeah. The same administrators, the same incentives. I mean, they're going nowhere fast unless parents wake up. JULIE ROYS:  Right. Well again, that's Max Eden, author of Why Meadow died and a senior fellow with The Manhattan Institute.  I'm Julie Roys. You're listening to The Roys Report.  If you'd like to weigh in, the number to call is 312-660-2594.  Segment 2 JULIE ROYS:  Well, was the Parkland School shooting the most preventable mass murder in US history? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And according to my guest today, the shooter who killed 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School last year, had a long history of violent and disturbing behavior. But administrators and police refused to recognize and contain evil—and instead tried to manage and heal it.  Again, joining me today is Max Eden, author of Why Meadow Died, and a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. This book releases on Tuesday and if you'd like to get a copy, I am giving away about 5 copies today. Just go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway and you can enter that giveaway to receive the book. Again, JulieRoys.com/giveaway to get the book Why Meadow Died. Also, you can join our conversation. The number to call:  312-660-2594. Or you can join the discussion online by going to Facebook.com/ReachJulieRoys. Or on Twitter, my handle is @reachjulieroys. Max, I want to, I know we're talking a lot about sort of the below the water line issues; the ideology that leads to these shootings and just ignoring these violent tendencies in people. But I also want to honor the victim. And this is why this book is called Why Meadow Died. Meadow was an 18-year-old student at Stoneman Douglas High School. She lost her life tragically because administrators didn't do what they were supposed to do.  Her father, Andrew, I understand, now has become sort of a crusader, even though he doesn't like that name. But he is really making some changes at the policy level because of what happened to his daughter. Can you tell us a little bit more about Meadow—who she was and how she lost her life in this tragic shooting? MAX EDEN:  Yeah. I mean Meadow was, you know, Andy describes her, my co-author Andrew Pollack, describes her as an all-American girl, you know. A girl who could go off-roading, do ATV's with her brothers one day and, you know, be kind of the super-model, girly girl the next. The kind of girl who whenever there was anybody new at school, she would go up to them and she would introduce herself and talk to them and then try to figure out who would this person like. And how can I introduce this person to a friend and make this person feel welcome, you know. She was, I never got the chance to meet her, but she was both, you know, a beautiful, kind soul but also one who could be, you know, fierce and protective over others. And one thing Andy says with mixed pride—very mixed emotions, you know. She was shot 5 times on the 3rd floor of the school and she crawls across the hallway, sees a Freshman and tries to drape her body over the freshman's body to protect her, only to be shot 4 more times between the two. A gunman who got on campus that day despite the fact that security monitors saw him getting out of the Uber. Recognized him as—that's crazy boy, that's the guy who we thought would shoot up the school. I can see that he's carrying a rifle bag. I don't want to approach him because maybe he has a hand gun but even after I hear large percussion noises coming out of the school, I don't want to call a Code Red. Because I didn't see the weapon and if it's not really, you know, a mass murder going on, I'd be the one to get in trouble if I called for a Code Red. So, you know, in that one incident it's kind of relates to what happened the whole way through. This effort to not, you know, look bad on paper, by the adults, led to these extremely bad decisions all the way through that culminated in the security guard, whose one job is to alert the school to an intruder. Knowing who just came on campus, being pretty sure what was going on and still not being willing to make a call that would have saved her life for fear that he would look bad for doing it. JULIE ROYS:  Yeah. That chapter where you describe the shooting, I mean, you just can't read that chapter and not just be very emotionally affected. I was reading it yesterday. My husband comes in and he's like “What's the matter with you.” And I'm like, “Oh my word.” I mean it's so tragic. And I think the thing that made me the angriest was the actual person on the grounds, on campus, who actually had a gun that day, who was too cowardly to do anything. The one police officer who was there. Right? MAX EDEN:  Yes and more than that. I mean, Scott Peterson, the school Resource Officer, was the one man on campus with a gun. He was taken over to the building in a little golf cart and rather than approach the building, he went to the building next door and remained in place for 48 minutes. And not only did he remain in place, he actually called out, do not approach the 1200 building where it was happening. Stay at least 500 feet away. And maybe in part, because of that warning, maybe not, there were 7 other Broward Sheriff's deputies who arrived on scene while the shooting was still unfolding. And all 7 of them remained outside the building. Not one of the 8 police officers who were on the scene, while there were shots ringing out from within a school, went into that school, you know. The shooter would have had 11 full minutes to himself in a building with 800 students because not one man, sworn to protect the public, decided to step into that building. JULIE ROYS:  Man. And isn't sort of the protocol now that the minute you hear anything, the protocol is you're, policemen, security, everybody is supposed to go and confront the gunman. Yes? MAX EDEN:  Well, in most places yes. I mean, ever since Columbine, the protocol has been if there's a shooting, if there's a school shooting, you don't negotiate, you don't wait outside, you go straight in. But Broward Sheriff, Scott Israel, quite an ideological kind of guy, in many ways, he changed his policy from, his active shooter policy, from the deputies shall go in, to the deputies may go in. So, in this sick way, with these 8 deputies, standing outside the building, thinking to themselves full well, must have been thinking, there are children being murdered right in front of me. The decision to not go in was actually in accordance with the policy set by their boss.  JULIE ROYS:  Unbelievable! And, you know, this Broward County Sheriff, the quote that's in the book is absolutely breathtaking. He had a quote, “We measure our success by the kids we keep out of jail, not by the kids we put in jail.” So you have a Sheriff's Department who, so it's not just schools who led to this failure and this shooting, it was the Sheriff's Department as well. They received, initially I think it, wasn't it reported that they received 23 calls to Nicolas Cruz' home. And they protested and said, no, no, no it wasn't 23. Well then when they when there went more research, and went into the books, we found out they received 45 calls to Cruz' home, none of which resulted in an arrest. Correct? MAX EDEN:  That's correct. And this is, again, you know, to take it below water. This is downstream from the ideology we were talking about earlier right? I mean, I think the Judeo-Christian view of the State's rule of law, is to try to contain evil, and try to maintain order. But this alternative division suggests that, you know, it's the police who are the oppressors and any apparent statistical inequities are a product of police iniquity. And that the police need to be reined in. So when you, you know, when you do that, you think to yourself, well we have to stop arresting kids full stop. That is how we do our jobs as, you know, members of law enforcement by not enforcing our law. Because we view ourselves to be untrustworthy. That's the Sheriff Israel ideology. And I think the most remarkable, you know, concrete manifestation of that in this place, in this case, was a mom called the Broward Sheriff's office. And she said my daughter told me that she saw a post on Instagram, by this individual, saying I am going to get this gun and I'm going to shoot up the school. And the Broward Sheriff's Deputy, Edward Eason, allegedly said to her, well that's protected by the First Amendment.  JULIE ROYS:  Oh, oh, oh! Man! MAX EDEN:  Which, suffice to say, it's not. And then when the mom said well how could we prevent him from getting a gun when he turns 18? And he said well that's protected by the Second.  Which, suffice to say, if he threatened to kill, it's not. But if you're under pressure to not arrest juveniles, you're not going to arrest juveniles. JULIE ROYS:  That is unbelievable. I think that Sheriff's deputy needs to be instructed a little bit that there is something called the clear and present danger with speech. And when there's a clear and present danger, that is not protected. That is one when we say, no, you can't have that speech. I mean, these are death threats. And that wasn't the only one, was it? MAX EDEN:  Oh no, that wasn't the only one. And he threatened to kill several of his classmates while in Stillman Douglas. And they told me, they told, they brought it to the school's attention. Nothing was done. I think, you know, the other maybe most dramatic, jaw-dropping thing for your listeners to understand and again they need to understand, it's just . . . JULIE ROYS:  All right. Hold that thought. Hold that thought, Max. When we come back, we'll get to that jaw-dropping thing that you have to say. Again, the number to call 312-660-2594. I'll get to your calls when I come back. And again, we'll hear more from Max Eden, author of Why Meadow Died and a senior fellow with The Manhattan Institute.  3rd Segment When a society denies the existence of evil, the results can be devastating. Welcome back to The Roys Report, brought to you in part by Judson University.  I'm Julie Roys.  And today, we're discussing the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history—and the faulty worldview that led to it. That shooting occurred on February 14, 2018, at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And the shooter—Nikolas Cruz—had a well-documented history of violence, death threats, and an obsession with guns. Yet liberal school administrators refused to acknowledge evil. They refused to acknowledge the depravity of mankind. And as a result, 17 people lost their lives.  Joining me today is Max Eden, co-author of Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies That Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students. Our studio lines are open, and you can join our discussion, as well. The number to call is 312-660-2594. Or you can join the online discussion by going to Facebook.com/ReachJulieRoys. And on Twitter, our handle is @ReachJulieRoys. Max, I want to get to a caller who just called. But first, I want to give you an opportunity to, you had a jaw-dropping point of detail that you were going to mention right before the break. So let me give you an opportunity to mention that. MAX EDEN:  Yeah, I mean so, it's the, it's kind of a, there was this one week, the week that he turned 18 years old, he got into this big fight at school. He called a student the N-word, attacked him, several students wrote statements to the administrators saying, you know, “this kid has threatened to kill us, brought knives to school, brought bullets to school. We're so scared of him.” That same week, the mental health authorities were called out 3 times, once to his house, twice to his school, for concerns that he was getting into fights with his mother. That he was trying to kill himself. That he had written “kill” at the top of his notebook because he was getting into a fight with his mom about whether or not he could buy a gun. Not one of those times did the mental health authorities think, “Oh, we need to take a look at this kid. Do we need to take him under observation?” And when faced with all of this, the school administrators didn't think to themselves, “Wow, this kid is dangerous. He needs to be introduced to the juvenile justice system.” What they were operating under was, according to the superintendent, the philosophy that we aren't going to continue to arrest our kids and give them a criminal record. So rather than have him arrested at any point in this week, based on his behavior, they literally said to him, “You are not allowed to bring a backpack to school anymore. And we're going to frisk you every day for fear that you might be carrying a deadly weapon.” So, something is profoundly wrong when adults who we trust with the care of our students can look at a kid and say, “You're too dangerous. We think you're going to bring in a deadly weapon, so we're going to prevent you from having the opportunity, frisk you to make super sure, but heaven forbid we introduce you to the police.” JULIE ROYS: Yeah, well it makes me wonder, what would it take to actually get arrested in Broward County schools when, I mean, this guy did everything you have to do. And we had a caller call in, she's anonymous, wanted to stay anonymous, didn't want to stay on the ine, but she said, “Why is it that we have this rights of one person—Nikolas Cruz—that seems to trump all the rights of all these students within the school as well as the teachers and the faculty, clearly a danger to them. Why is that? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, you know, it's an outgrowth of the ideology, right? I mean, this is, he's labelled as having a disability, right? And you're granted a whole bunch of rights if you have a disability. And nothing in federal law says that those rights need to be weighed against the rights of other students. This becomes extremely problematic when we label students who are deeply emotionally disturbed as having an emotional and behavioral disability. At that point, school administrators have to consider their rights and literally aren't supposed to consider and weigh the rights of other students with them. They need to manage these students with an eye towards their quote-unquote rights. And totally in keeping with all the paperwork burdens to be placed upon them. So, normal human judgment, you know, the decisions that we should be able to trust the adults to make, they can't make. Because we tell them, “you can only consider the rights of the troubled kids. And you have to do everything you're doing through a lens of paperwork and bureaucracy rather than intuition and human judgment.” JULIE ROYS: Right. And to me, if you're going to follow it to its logical conclusion, we just get rid of our entire penal system, right? I mean, why even have it? Right? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, that is, they got quite close to that in the Broward County schools. This wasn't in the book. This came out 2 weeks ago in a poll. The Broward teacher's union polled their teachers. 1287 responded. Out of those teachers, only 3 expected that if a student were to assault a teacher, the student would be arrested. JULIE ROYS: Good grief. MAX EDEN:  Compared to 7 who thought the student would get a treat. JULIE ROYS: Wow. And I have to say that my husband spent his career in the public-school system. He's a retired public-school teacher. And I remember him escorting a student down the hall, and the student attacked him. And that student, that was his last day at the school. He was gone. Immediately. So, I thank God that the school he worked in seemed to acknowledge that this is important. And that these students can't be in there if they're behaving that way. But clearly, not happening in Broward County. And I want to go to this, you know, this idea that these kids have emotional disabilities. It seems to me this flows from this sort of naturalistic worldview where, you know, every child is born into this world with sort of a clean slate. And it just must be these bad influences that make these children turn evil. Because there isn't real evil in their hearts. There couldn't be any true depravity. There couldn't actually be some demonic forces at play in the world. It's all some sort of naturalistic thing. We have to come up with an evolutionary, you know, way of describing this. And yet this kid—Nikolas Cruz—I mean, an adopted kid, goes into this home, as far as we know, it seems like we have a mother who is somewhat of an enabler. And she did allow him to watch violent video games, and maybe we'll talk about that a little bit too. But there doesn't seem to be, other than the fact that his adoptive father died—but he was acting out before then—I mean, can we explain this child's evil behavior? MAX EDEN:  I mean, in my opinion, it was inborn. It was, whether you're of the religious or scientific persuasion, he's born the son of a crack-addict career-criminal mother. His old sister was also a criminal. He throws an infant into a pool when he's 2 years old. There's something in the core of his soul that is, you know, that tends toward evil. But what I write in the book is that, you know, it's not a unique thing. We're supposed to build our institutions to contain our demons. And if he had institutions that were working around him, that would have seen him for what he was and responded to him as what he was, then I think that what was just an inborn, inbred desire to kill and destroy could have been contained. But he only had a mother who was herself kind of a floating atom, disconnected from the community and no religious roots. A school, a mental health system, a police force, all of which were oriented toward the path of least resistance. You know, nobody around him looked at him and thought, “there is something deeply wrong and we need to take an aggressive hand on this.” I feel like if they did, it could have been a . . .  JULIE ROYS: Max, we need to go to break. But when we come back, I want to discuss that more. Was there something demonic going on with this guy? I really do wonder that. Again, you're listening to The Roys Report.  I'm Julie Roys.  We'll be right back after a short break. 4th Segment JULIE ROYS:  Well, did Parkland school shooting victim Meadow Pollack die because school administrators failed to acknowledge the depravity of mankind and the existence of evil? Welcome back to The Roys Report. I'm Julie Roys. And today we're talking about what some have called the most preventable school shooting in U.S. history. The shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, claimed the lives of 17 people. But the shooter, who had a violent history, never should have been able to buy guns. And he never should have been placed in the regular school population.  That's according to my guest this morning this morning, Max Eden, co-author of Why Meadow Died—a book on the shooting and policies that led to it. That book releases on Tuesday. If you'd like a copy, just go to, we're giving away several of them, go to JulieRoys.com/giveaway and you can enter to win a copy of this book. We've had an outstanding conversation today. If you missed any part of it, I want to let you know that you can listen to it again. We'll have a podcast up at my website in about an hour after the show ends. So just go to JulieRoys.com. Click on the podcast tab. Also, I also want to let you know that next week, leading apologist, Dr. Michael Brown, will be joining me to answer skeptics' toughest questions about Christianity. You may remember, about a month ago, Hillsong songwriter, Marty Sampson, said that he was losing his faith because he couldn't find answers to questions like, “why would God send anyone to hell?” Or, “Aren't there a lot of contradictions in the Bible?” Well Dr. Brown is someone who has been discussing tough questions like that for the past 40 years. And if you'd like to submit a question for Dr. Brown to answer, just email us at The Roys Report at JulieRoys.com. But returning to our discussion this morning, again joining me is Max Eden. And Max before the break we were talking just shortly and you know, when you talk about this in the general population people kind of look at you like you're a little nuts, if you think that something might have a demonic component. But like you said, this shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had seemed troubled and actually violent from the very beginning. Even as early as two years old and even in Pre-K he was having all sorts of trouble. In kindergarten having all sorts of trouble. What do you think about that? Do you think there was some demonic component that this man needed to be treated by people that understand the spiritual dimension? MAX EDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think there was certainly evil to it. I am somewhat agnostic on the demonic mechanism, but I think, if you're less agnostic than that, there's plenty of evidence to suggest there was something like that at work. I mean, this is a kid who, you know, whenever the word gun was mentioned in middle school, he would light up. And just you know, he would get excited. And when he was sent to a specialized school, he told them, you know, “I had a dream of killing and being covered in blood.” I think this extends beyond, you know, normal psychology. Clearly into the realm of evil. He later, you know, told the police officers that he did what he did because of demon voices that he heard in his head. We have some reason to doubt that because we know that he Googled for ways to appear insane after committing murder. But that, you know, doesn't solve the question. That begs a further question of, you know, what is going on inside a human soul that would Google, “how do I appear insane after killing.” And who would have this clearly expressed desire to kill since a very young age. I mean it goes beyond I think crime, law and order, beyond traditional mental health things, and clearly into the realm of evil. The mechanism of that is somewhat above my pay grade but it is evil. JULIE ROYS:  Well, and didn't Roxanne Duchamp, is that how you pronounce her name?  MAX EDEN: Yeah, yeah, she said, she mentioned when the killer was staying with them, shortly after his mom died, about a month before, that in the evening she would hole up in her room, kind of barricading the door and hearing demon noises coming out from him. So, you know, there's a very strong case. The fact pattern is there for anybody persuaded to it. Personally, I am persuaded to the existence of evil. And demonic possession, it's a mechanism that would fit the facts.  JULIE ROYS:  Yeah, it sure would. I know I was talking about this last night at the dinner table with my husband and my daughter. We have such delightful conversations at dinner time. But, yeah I mean, I couldn't help but be talking about this because you read this book and it's so shocking and it's disturbing. But when I mentioned this, that Roxanne said she slept, you know, heard these demon noises, slept with the door barricaded and with a machete in hand she said. Which I thought that was interesting—she had a machete at home, it's not something most of us have—but anyway. She said my daughter said, “Why didn't they call police?” And I'm like well, you know it happened 45 times and they did absolutely nothing. So, I mean, what do you in that situation? You've got this man living at home with these, you know, terrible impulses. But again, everyone seemed to not know what to do about it. We've explored the demonic a little bit. I also want to talk about these violent video games. And again, this is one of those things, there's a lot of kids out there playing violent video games. For the majority of them, they don't become psychopathic killers as a result. But for some, it seems to have a very bad influence and this guy was pretty much, I mean it sounds like just someone who just played video games all the time, correct? MAX EDEN:  Yes, he and the Newton shooter are very, very similar in this regard. I mean, neither of them had much of a social life beyond online and single player shooting video games. And at his house, his mom, according to a social worker, that whenever he lost at a shooting game that he would become so violent as to punch holes in the wall. She said, you know, my walls are polka dotted from all the spackle I have to use to cover the holes. This kid had no friends, had no, you know, no civil society around him, no religion around him. He went to the school and he played violent video games. And one of his teachers wrote, wrote down, you know, I think this student's a profound danger to himself and others at the school. I don't think he can tell the difference between violent video games and reality. So it's the kind of thing where I think, you know, most kids can play and there will be only a mildly corrupting force. But for it to have this in them, I do think like we've seen enough examples where it seems to really, so profoundly warp their understanding of the world that they end up playing out in real life what they've played out in video games.  JULIE ROYS:  I laugh at the mildly corrupting force yet we seem to be so willing to let it into our homes. The whole violent video game thing, don't even get me started. The other thing—you just touched on this—but when I was reading your book I was like what? And the teacher said when he loses at X-Box he gets violently angry and I'm sitting there asking myself, why is this kid playing X-Box at school? Can you help me understand that?  MAX EDEN:  The teacher recorded his mother saying that.  JULIE ROYS: Oh, his mother's saying that. OK, I must've misread that. MAX EDEN:  The mother, you know, whenever, she didn't know what to do with him because he needed to be on his X-Box and when he wasn't on his X-Box he was upset. And then he would get his X-Box and he lost he would get extra upset. And this is part of the failure and I didn't go into it as much as I could in the book, largely because the woman is dead and there's no further work to be done. But you know, she had no idea what to do. She knew that her son had profound evil around him and she, a few months before her death, told a bank teller, you know, “if something happens to me, you'll know it was Nick.” But she genuinely didn't know what to do. And she didn't have any community, any support, any religious sort of organization around her that could help her deal with the evil that was in her home.  JULIE ROYS:  Right. And that's another aspect of this, too. I think that there's this woman, trying to raise a son by herself. Her husband's passed away, and she has no real family support. She has no faith community. And it used to be in society, those were our backdrops, right? And, I mean, that's what girded people up. And I know, I mean, for myself that it is what, what is my support. But for a lot of people that don't have this and so this elimination of sort of understanding of faith and family and even the support where we have often these students who get in trouble. And instead of the family's sort of, like for me, when I got in trouble as a kid, didn't happen a lot, but if I ever did, I knew full well that my parents weren't going to be backing me up. They're going to be backing the school up and I'd better get in line, right? But it's kind of the opposite right now, isn't it at the schools? MAX EDEN:  Yeah, no, it's flipped. I mean this ideology isn't just in government, it's also, you know, amongst parents. Like, “My kid has rights, what are you doing to my kid? If my kid gets in trouble, it must be your fault.” I mean part of the reason why, you know, a student like him at a school like Stoneman Douglas; very upper middle class, affluent, allegedly a very safe school. Students with “disabilities” kind of had the run of the mill because administrators were worried that a parent might come to the school and, you know, basically sue them or make their life heck for trying to proverbially lay a hand on their kid. I think that, you know, it used to be that schools were kind of an outgrowth of the community's moral order—kind of a further exertion of, you know, the parental influence. But as so many other things in society have inverted or realigned. I think schools are being blamed not only by policy makers, not only by bureaucrats but by parents for any problems that kids experience.  JULIE ROYS:  So, for the people listening right now who are like, I want to do something about this. And I know Andrew Pollack has been just such an incredible force in trying to get things done and policies changed. What can we do? How can we be a part of positive change?  MAX EDEN:  Yeah. So, the thing that parents need to understand is that the story that we tell in this book is about Parkland and about Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. But it's not a story that's confined to there. This is a story that's playing out in thousands of schools across America every day because these same policy pressures are at work. You know, heaven forbid it ever again leads to a such an extreme version. But it will and does—every day—lead to violence that goes unaddressed, leads to bullying that is unaddressed. Threats that are allowed to slide by because of this pressure to not take a firm hand. And I think that the first thing parents need to do is to talk to their teachers. And ask them, you know, “Are administrators hiding things? Are they refusing to enforce rules? Is there a student in my kid's classroom who everybody knows shouldn't be there?” And the teachers aren't going to want to speak up because, not to the public as themselves, at least, because they fear retaliation. But they can tell the parents. And if the parents hear this from the teachers, they need to go to the school board members. And they need to say to them, “We know this is what's going on in our kids' schools. Our teachers are too afraid to speak out. This is unacceptable and you need to change these policies.” Because like we talked about earlier, the federal government is no longer pushing it but this kind of bureaucratic apparatus that runs education at a higher level is—the inertia there is going to keep on militating towards it. The only thing that can make schools safer is parents getting informed and involved. And going to their school board members to identify these problems are occurring and to demand that these policies change if they are.  JULIE ROYS:  Well, I so appreciate my daughter Ashley goes to a Christian school and I appreciate that they have a proper worldview.  So, I think they will deal with these sorts of things in that way. But I think it's important for us, like you say, go to your kids, talk to your kids, find out what's happening in the schools. And go to the teachers, go to the administrators, get involved as parents. You know scripture says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. It stuns me how people who are so smart can, in some senses, can be so dumb. To me, that's precisely what led to this Parkland shooting. Administrators and police refusing to see evil as a real thing stemming from the depravity in man's heart and Satan himself. Instead, they viewed it as a social construct or the result of oppression. They sought to manage it or appease it, instead of confront it and contain it. And as a result, Meadow Pollack and 16 other people, were mowed down by a murderous psychopath. What's mind-boggling is that these faulty policies are still in place in many schools. So, appreciate you so much, Max, for writing this book. Thanks for listening today. Again, if you missed any part of this program, just go to JulieRoys.com. You can get the audio there. Thanks so much for listening. Hope you have a great weekend and God bless!   Read more

Aaron and Brian discuss the recent news about author Josh Harris and Hillsong worship leader Marty Sampson publicly stepping out of Christianity and how Jesus followers can handle these types of situations involved friends and family who struggle with the same things. We look at doubt, questioning, and wrestle with the meaning of the word "apostasy." Our heart is to help Christians see that this very real problem can be approached with grace, truth, and love.

Apostasy, heretics, false teaching, Christian stardom! Can they go together?  Most likely.  In this episode, Marcuss reads a recent statement by John Cooper, from the band Skillet, on the state of Christendom.  He posted this in response to many getting their theology from worship songs and not being grounded in Biblical Truth and some leaving the faith.  In particular, Marty Sampson from Hillsong.  He recently posted he was losing his faith and had great peace.  So, let's take a look inside because that is where the problems arise first and foremost, in the body!  Marcuss has statements to make on both posts and more so to Marty because of his questions, statements, and answers.  It boils down to this, our theology matters! Help Support: https://paypal.me/thekingdomproject YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs6iFjfgzzajleMLL2F99Rg Join the group: https://www.facebook.com/thekingdomprojectpodcast Email: thekingdomprojectpodcast@gmail.com

Frank Sontag discusses Christian influencers like author Joshua Harris and Hillsong songwriter Marty Sampson abandoning the faith. John Cooper, singer/guitarist for Skillet shares his thoughts on Facebook. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disciple Up #122 When Someone Leaves the Faith By Louie Marsh, 8-21-2019   Recent “High Profile” Christian leaders have either abandoned the faith or nearly so. Marty Sampson and Josh Harris are two of them.   John L. Cooper(lead singer of Skillet) FaceBook post on this: https://www.facebook.com/johnlcooperstuff/photos/a.2899206263638620/2899204140305499/?type=3&theater   John L Cooper's Rant Edited   Ok I'm saying it. Because it's too important not to. What is happening in Christianity? More and more of our outspoken leaders or influencers who were once “faces” of the faith are falling away. And at the same time they are being very vocal and bold about it. Shockingly they still want to influence others (for what purpose?) as they announce that they are leaving the faith. I'll state my conclusion, then I'll state some rebuttals to statements I've read by some of them. Firstly, I never judge people outside of my faith. Even if they hate religion or Christianity. That is not my place and I have many friends who disagree with my religion and that is 100% fine with me. However, when it comes to people within my faith, there must be a measure of loyalty and friendship and accountability to each other and the Word of God. My conclusion for the church: We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I've been saying for 20 years that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word. I have a few specific thoughts and rebuttals to statements made by recently disavowed church influencers...first of all, I am stunned that the seemingly most important thing for these leaders who have lost their faith is to make such a bold new stance. Basically saying, “I've been living and preaching boldly something for 20 years and led generations of people with my teachings and now I no longer believe it..therefore I'm going to boldly and loudly tell people it was all wrong while I boldly and loudly lead people in to my next truth.” I'm perplexed why they aren't embarrassed? Humbled? Ashamed, fearful, confused? Why be so eager to continue leading people when you clearly don't know where you are headed? My second thought is, why do people act like “being real” covers a multitude of sins? As if someone is courageous simply for sharing virally every thought or dark place. That's not courageous. It's cavalier. Have they considered the ramifications? As if they are the harbingers of truth, saying “I used to think one way and practice it and preach it, but now I've learned all the new truth and will start practicing and preaching it.” So the influencers become the voice for truth in whatever stage of life and whatever evolution takes place in their thinking. Thirdly, there is a common thread running through these leaders/influencers that basically says that “no one else is talking about the REAL stuff.” This is just flatly false. I just read today in a renown worship leader's statement, “How could a God of love send people to hell? No one talks about it.” As if he is the first person to ask this? Brother, you are not that unique. The church has wrestled with this for 1500 years. Literally. Everybody talks about it. Children talk about it in Sunday school. There's like a billion books written on the topic. Just because you don't get the answer you want doesn't mean that we are unwilling to wrestle with it. We wrestle with scripture until we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. And lastly, and most shocking imo, as these influencers disavow their faith, they always end their statements with their “new insight/new truth” that is basically a regurgitation of Jesus's words?! It's truly bizarre and ironic. They'll say “I'm disavowing my faith but remember, love people, be generous, forgive others”. Ummm, why? That is actually not human nature It is time for the church to rediscover the preeminence of the Word. And to value the teaching of the Word. We need to value truth over feeling. Truth over emotion. And what we are seeing now is the result of the church raising up influencers who did not supremely value truth who have led a generation who also do not believe in the supremacy of truth. And now those disavowed leaders are proudly still leading and influencing boldly AWAY from the truth. Is it any wonder that some of our disavowed Christian leaders are letting go of the absolute truth of the Bible and subsequently their lives are falling apart? Brothers and sisters in the faith all around the world, pastors, teachers, worship leaders, influencers...I implore you, please please in your search for relevancy for the gospel, let us NOT find creative ways to shape Gods word into the image of our culture by stifling inconvenient truths. But rather let us hold on even tighter to the anchor of the living Word of God. For He changes NOT. “The grass withers and the flowers fade away, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8)   CT Article: https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/august/leaving-faith-by-losing-focus-part-1.html   How Should We React When People We Know Do This.   1) Stay calm, do NOT overreact and get in their face.   2) Pray immediately. For them and for yourself and what you should do about this. Don't spread it around, take it to God.   Check yourself and make sure you are standing strong.   1  Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2  Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:1-2 (ESV)   3) When you talk to them the most important thing is to try and get to REAL root of the problem. This usually isn't what they'll tell you at first. In my experience it's often tied to personal pain or betrayal inflicted on them by a Christian. Or it's a tough time and God hasn't answered their prayers they way they wanted Him too.   4) Ask lots of question and actually LISTEN! Be like Jesus who did exactly the same thing.   5) Reaffirm your love for and friendship with them. Be in this for the long haul if that's what it takes. Don't reject them just because they are, or think they are, rejecting the Lord.   6) Main question – where's Jesus in all this? Often this will bring them to realize this is more of a rejection of the church or other believers than it is a rejection of God or Jesus.   7) Ask them if you can pray for them when talking to them, and tell them you are going to pray for them privately.    

Last week, following the high profile falling away from faith of Joshua Harris, former Hillsong singer and songwriter Marty Sampson posted this on Instagram: “Time for some real talk...I'm genuinely losing my faith...and it doesn't bother me.”          The next day he deleted this post and clarified that he hasn't fully renounced Christianity, at least not yet. Still, he admitted, his faith was quite shaky. He then reiterated his doubts and said that “the majority of a typical Christian's life is not spent considering these things” because they fall into the “too hard basket.”          Sampson's claims, I'm sad to say, are not uncommon among young evangelicals. And let me just say this as directly and bluntly as I can: they reveal a failure on the part of the church to take the difficult but essential task of faith formation seriously enough. As I read through his description of what was happening, I thought to myself, which faith is he falling away from. His words reveal a lot.          First, he described a faith largely driven by emotions. Losing his faith, he said, did not bother him. In fact, he's happy about it. So, if his doubts bothered him and his faith instead made him happy, would he then reconsider? The fact is, too many churches sell Christianity with feelings. We're told how interested God is in our own happiness, our own meaning, and our own sense of purpose. But our feelings cannot determine whether or not something is actually true. Second, the faith Sampson describes is an uncritical faith. Science, he says, “keeps piercing the truth of every religion.” I'm not completely sure what that even means, but it seems to buy into the classic science vs. faith narrative. It's just not true that science is ultimately opposed to faith. It's not true historically, nor is it true today. Faith doesn't need to reject critical investigation. Third, Sampson describes an uneducated faith. He claimed that “no one talks about” the seeming contradictions in the Bible, the fact that Christian leaders fall, or how a loving God can condemn “four billion people to a place, all ‘coz they don't believe.” This of course is just not true. Every apologetics book ever written tackles these questions, and the issues he raised here aren't even the difficult ones. Still, while Sampson is mistaken that “nobody” is talking about these issues, he's not completely wrong in his critique. In fact, far too many churches avoid tough questions. Far too many fail to equip Christians on the current cultural controversies. In fact, too much of Christianity – especially evangelical Christianity – neglects intellectual discipleship altogether. Not even basic theology is articulated from some pulpits. I don't know how else to say it: They fail God's people. Fourth, Sampson also wrote that “Lots of things help people change their lives, not just one version of truth.” This statement reveals a misguided faith, one that smacks of what sociologist Christian Smith called “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” that the point of religion and faith is self-improvement. That's not what Christian faith is about. Christian faith is discovering the truth about who God is and what He is doing in the world, and then through repentance and His grace, aligning ourselves to that truth.          Now look, I have no problem with Sampson admitting doubt.  Most of us, at some point in our journey of faith, will encounter doubt about God's love, about Scripture, about whether Jesus is really God, any number of things. In fact, I discussed doubt with apologist Brett Kunkle recently on the BreakPoint Podcast. But Marty Sampson was a worship leader. He wrote modern Christian melodic catechism. He was tasked, as worship leaders are, with communicating theology to the body of Christ. Apparently, he was in a church where no one was talking about the questions he struggled with. The church failed him. In his book “The Fabric of Faithfulness,” Steve Garber wrote that the reason so many young Christians lose their faith is that their worldview isn't “big enough” for the world. This is a depressingly accurate description of what we can expect from a generation whose intellectual faith formation has been neglected.  

Hillsong song writer, Marty Sampson, has announced that he has "happily lost faith" in this Christian religion. But you see... there's so much to this. Something we've been talking about A LOT lately, thanks for joining us today! www.APhomechurch.com Resources: @gloryintheordinary_ on Instagram https://pulpitandpen.org/2019/08/12/hillsong-writer-marty-sampson-renounces-his-faith-on-instagram/ https://reformationcharlotte.org/2019/08/11/highly-popular-hillsong-songwriter-renounces-faith/

As we continue our week on Jesus' High Priestly prayer, today we'll explore God's desire to see his people unified. Why would this be important to him? What good could be in unity for us and others? What is Jesus trying to communicate to the world through us? May our hearts be open to the answers we discover today as we take a deeper dive. Our Scripture for today comes from John 17:10-11, and today's worship is O Praise The Name (Anástasis) by Hillsong Worship featuring Marty Sampson. First15 is a daily devotional written and recorded by Craig Denison. If you would like to learn more about the First15 app, books, blogs, videos and our other resources, please visit first15.org. You can always reach out to us on our contact page on the website. And, if you feel called to support First15 financially, you may give here.

Even Paul, with his pedigree, miraculous conversion, and impact in ministry did not consider himself “arrived”. Rather, he continually pressed on in his Christian walk and determined to live more and more like Christ. In this he invited others to imitate him and keep their eyes on others who walked similarly.1. Press on (3:12-14)2. Hold true (3:15-16)3. Choose wisely (3:17-19)4. Look forward (3:20-21)5. Stand firm (4:1)SONGSThe Lion And The Lamb #7038281 by Brenton Brown, Brian Johnson, and Leeland MooringAlways #5881037 by Jason Ingram and Kristian Stanfillworshiptogether.com songs, sixsteps Music, Sony/ATV Timber Publishing, and Windsor Hill MusicChrist Is Enough #6514035 by Reuben Morgan and Jonas Myrin2012 Hillsong Music PublishingMan Of Sorrows #6476063 by Matt Crocker and Brooke Ligertwood2012 Hillsong Music PublishingO Praise The Name (Anástasis) #7037787 by Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson2015 © Hillsong Music Publishing

April 17, 2016 | Find us online at www.theassembly.org | Real Love Alexander Pappas, Hannah Hobbs, Michael Fatkin © 2015 Hillsong Music Publishing | Love Goes On Hannah Hobbs, Joel Davies, Laura Toggs © 2013 Hillsong Music Publishing | Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) Joel Houston, Jonas Myrin © 2014 Hillsong Music Publishing | O Praise the Name (Anástasis) Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, Marty Sampson © 2015 Hillsong Music Publishing | CCLI 219137

- December 6 2015 - TheAssembly.org Magnificent Raymond Badham © 2001 Hillsong Music Publishing This Is Amazing Grace Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro, Phil Wickham © 2012 Phil Wickham Music, Seems Like Music, My Songs, WB Music Corp. Bethel Music Publishing This Is Living Aodhan King, Joel Davies © 2014 Hillsong Music Publishing All Is Well Michael W. Smith, Wayne Kirkpatrick © 1989 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Songs, Sony/ATV Milene Music O Praise the Name (Anástasis) Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, Marty Sampson © 2015 Hillsong Music Publishing CCLI 219137