Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast, making theology central. Good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, March the 27th, 2025. It is currently 1029 a.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Conflicted Confused Frustrated Discouraged Depressed irritated, thinking about giving up. You ever have any of those feelings? You ever find yourself maybe having multiple of those emotions? Maybe you are in that situation right now. Maybe you were just in it. Maybe you're going to go into it. But I think there's a lot of times that people find themselves in their lives feeling frustrated, confused, not knowing what to do, depressed, discouraged, want to give up. It could be about your job. It could be about a number of things. And if I'm honest with you, a lot of times I feel those emotions in regards to what to do for this podcast. I really do. Sometimes I'm like, man, you know, I know we constantly talk about hermeneutical issues and hermeneutical errors that are happening within Christianity, but is that all you ever want to do? And then there's a lot of times I'm like, well, I need to do something more devotional, more spiritual for my own good. But then I'm like, well, I've spent so much time trying to deal with all the hermeneutical issues, I don't even know if I know how to deal with doing something in a more devotional way anymore because of trying to correct all of the wrong done with devotional type approaches to scripture. So then you're just like, and then sometimes you just feel like it's never ending. I mean, the things we've done with Isaiah 40 through 55, I mean, is that ever going to end? And every sermon I listen to, it's just one sermon after another sermon after another sermon. You're like, what is happening? Does anyone not know how to handle Isaiah 40 through 55 even remotely correctly? Then the Acts 27 thing. I mean, if you've been paying any attention to the podcast, you know, and sometimes it just feels like, How much more can I say? What more can I do? It doesn't even matter. And then while you're sitting there worrying about all the hermeneutical issues within the church, of course, then you've got all kinds of other things going on within Christianity. It's just maddening. And it's like, how much time do you spend on this? And what do you spend on that? And sometimes I just sit here and I'm like, I just don't know what to do. I'm irritated. I'm frustrated. I'm discouraged. I'm depressed. I'm thinking about giving up. And then Not only are you considering the church, Christianity, hermeneutics, everything going on in the church. Then, of course, you look at, you know, you have your own spiritual life. I don't know about you, but your own spiritual life, you know, like, am I doing this? Do this? Struggle with this? You've got your own things to deal with. I'm no different than you. I say it all the time. I'm just a sinner with a microphone. And then you look around at the world and you're like, what? in the name of bubble gum is going on. The world seems absolutely spinning out of control. You don't want to be hyperbolic. You don't want to. You don't want to make something more than it is, but just sometimes you look around and you're like, what is going on? And then you have to kind of figure out, well, what's going on in the world constantly influences the church because the world is so divided. Everything becomes a political fight, and then the church has become political. So then you go back, well, not am I dealing with all the hermeneutical issues in the church. Do I deal with the political issues in the church? the church has been politically hijacked, how the church has been politically co-opted and been basically taken over by a specific political movement and political party. Do I spend time trying to correct that? How much time do I spend trying to fight the political hijacking of the church? Because the minute you push back on it, people from that particular political way of thinking then will get mad at you. But I mean, no matter what you do, when it becomes a theological podcast, if you care about anything, you're almost always going to find your enemies. But it's like, do I fight that? And then you look at what's going on in the world, and you're like, there just seems to be a million problems. What do I do? What do I do? I don't even know anymore. Do I even turn on the microphone? Do I even want to turn on the microphone? Does it even matter? Is it all just an exercise in futility? There's a lot of sound and fury with no real meaning. I mean, what do I do? Does it accomplish anything? Does it change anything? What am I attempting to do here? What do I really want to accomplish? And sometimes you're just left sitting here in front of the microphone, or at least I am. I'm left sitting here in front of the microphone going, what do I do? What do I do? I got a Bible here. Do I try to do something there? I got a million sermons to listen to. Do I try to review one of those? What do I do? What do I do? Wait, wait. You know, if I open up... I open up some news sites. Man, I got this, I mean, what in the world was our government doing by, you know, talking on a chat app about, you know, attack plans? Like what in the world is going on? Well, you see, if I'm a Trump supporter, I say it doesn't matter. It means nothing. If I'm not a Trump supporter, I say it means, you know, the end of the world. I say, oh, I got tariffs going to happen. You know, I got tariffs that's going to be placed on cars not made in the United States. We got, oh, we just got this going on, this going on. I mean, I'm just, I got all of these news articles here. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Do I talk about it? Well, if I talk about it, then you end up in this never ending battle between left and right. What do I do? And I'm just trying to give you a sense of just my own, my own, existential crisis, my own, just trying to figure it all out. So sometimes I turn on the microphone. I'm like, well, I think that was beneficial. Maybe I will get feedback. Maybe I won't get feedback. Maybe I'll get told that someone's not going to listen to me anymore. They're not going to support me anymore. Who knows? You never know what you're going to get. But I know this, there's always something that probably needs to be done. Now, the reason I'm bringing all of this up is because not only was I sitting here today kind of just going through this kind of crisis, like, what do I do? What do I do? Had a Sword of the Lord newspaper right here and an article here on Hebrews chapter 12, verse one about, I'll read it. wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with a great cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight," right? Lay aside every weight. Then this article proceeded to, well, take the word weight and just, well, the weight of this, the weight of this, the weight of that, but it seemed to almost forget Hebrews 12.1 is written in a historical context. Well, what was possibly the weight being referenced in Hebrews 12.1 based on the historical and textual context? So then I'm like, well, do I do a recording and try to correct that? Well, that's getting right back into hermeneutical issues. Ah, I don't know. But at the same time, some of these things are at points are actually good if I separate it from Hebrews 12. I don't know. Do I do it devotional? And I'm just sitting here like, I don't know. And in the meantime, you know, like I said, I know everything going on in the world. I mean, do we talk about that whole craziness with the governmental officials on a chat app talking, you know, attack plans? And they, you know, didn't realize that someone messed up and invited a reporter there who watched the whole thing. And then all the different sides everyone's taking on that. Do I even discuss it? Does it even matter? As far as my podcast is concerned, it obviously matters. how will the church handle it? And then I could go look on, you know, Christian websites, see what they're talking about. You just, sometimes you just feel lost. Well, in the midst of all of that, At 9.24 a.m. Central Time, 9.24 a.m. Central Time, I received an email from a long, long, long, long, long time listener. They've been listening to me forever, off and on. I think sometimes they listen to me, sometimes they get mad at me and don't listen to me. I don't know. But they contact me sometimes. I think a lot of people have that kind of like, well, I listened to you, then I didn't listen to you. I think there's a little bit of that. I'm not saying that's the case here. I'm doing more, more joking around here, but 924 AM. So I'm going to read some of this email. Probably not going to read every single word, but I'll at least try to get the basic idea. And we're going to talk about it. because it does present a kind of a request, presents kind of a challenge, kind of presents me my own struggles. Are you ready to hear this? Someone emailed me and said, I hope you're well this morning. That's very thoughtful. Says, I was thinking about something. I've been listening to your podcast about Trump and Gaza and plan on listening to the Zelensky one next. I know that your podcast is focusing on theology, but I've always appreciated your take on current events. I think you have a unique perspective because you really try to be balanced, but you also really strive to be truthful and true to God's Word. It's really hard to find things that are balanced. Well, I do appreciate that someone says I have a unique perspective, because I typically think I do have a unique perspective. I really do believe that. If you go back to anything I've ever done on current events, or even things from a theological perspective, I typically kind of go, all right, here's how the majority of Christianity looks at this. This is how the majority of Christianity looks at this cultural issue, this news situation, this current event, or this is how Christians are handling scripture. I tend to have a unique perspective that which typically, that's a nice way of saying, I usually find myself going against everyone. I find myself usually in the minority of the minority of the minority of the minority, and it typically gets me in trouble. That's why I was kicked off Christian Radio, because I ticked off too many people, and the Christian Radio station didn't want to deal with it. So they're like, you've got to go. Literally, my program was on the air when I was kicked off the air. So I know how I get myself in a lot of trouble. A unique perspective is good to have, but a unique perspective typically means you just make everyone mad, which I do. I make the reformed people mad. I make the non-reformed people mad. I make the dispensational people mad, the covenantal people mad. I make everyone mad. because I typically don't subscribe to going along with your team. I don't want to be a member of your team. I don't want to be a member of your... I don't care. It's like I've tried to say it over and over. Something that greatly impacted me as a kid is the Abling Reporter News used to have a quote right at the very top. With or without offense to friend or foe, we tell of the world exactly as it goes. With or without offense to friend or foe, we tell of the world exactly as it goes. I remember reading that Very, very little, because I loved to read, so I was reading at a very, very, very, very young age. And I would read the newspaper, and I remember seeing that quote. I think I had to ask someone what it meant. I may have. But once I got it explained to me, I was like, that's my life. I don't care about who I offend. I don't care if it's a friend or a foe. I don't care. I'm not going to ever I'm not gonna subscribe to groupthink. I don't care about peer pressure. I don't care about people liking me or disliking me. I'm going to always go. a specific direction that I want to go, all right? So I've always kind of had, you can call it anti-conformity. You can call it rebellious. You can call it whatever you want. I just like to fight. I don't actually like to fight. I don't actually like the conflict. But this has all led to me having a unique perspective. So I do believe I have a unique perspective. I do that. I do believe that. Do I try to be balanced? I think I try to be balanced. I do try to be truthful. That's one thing I do care about, right? Look, I know I'm a sinner with a microphone. I know I'm ungodly. I know I'm a failure in a million different ways. But I've always felt the very least we can do as Christians, the very least we can do when it comes to whatever topic, is we can strive for facts, to be truthful, to be accurate. Because look, there's a million things in the Bible that I will never come anywhere close to accomplishing because we can't keep God's law. We will always fall short, not to get into a theological discussion, but we can go back and listen to my series on law and gospel. But I mean, we have a basic, simple rule here. Put away lying—this is Ephesians 4.25—put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Do not bear false witness. Speak the truth. Do not bear false witness. Those are basic concepts, right? God hates lying lips, so we need to strive for truth and facts. Not truth and facts that agree with our team or disagree with our team, just truth and facts. That's one of the things I get frustrated about how Christianity handles church history, right? Everybody runs back to the early church to find a quote and say, see, they agreed with us. And you completely misrepresent the totality of everything that church fathers said. I can't stand when Christians do that. They don't care about finding the truth of what the early church thought. They just want the early church to be utilized as a tool to promote their current theological beliefs. And it's like, that's just not a fair way to do church history. So I do strive to be truthful and true to God's word. I mean, I do my very best to be true to God's word. I mean, I don't know if any of us ever truly are, but I try. Now it says, it's really hard to find things that are balanced. There is such a dialectic between left and right and between every other group that's out there. That's a very good observation. There is this never-ending dialectic, this never-ending division, this never-ending debate between left and right, especially in 2025. Everything is framed as leftist, woke, liberal, conservative, MAGA, you know, it's Republican, Democrat. Everything is broken into these categories and you have to pick a team. You have to pick a team and then you see everything in life, no matter what happens. You see it through either a liberal, woke, progressive, whatever terms you want to use. From that, you're on that team. Or you have to look through things through the lens of the MAGA, Republican, conservative team. And you've got to pick and choose. You've got to pick a team. And then facts are only seen through the lens of that team. So it's just bizarre, like, you're like, no, this happened. Well, if you're a Republican, you're going to look at it this way. You're going to say, it's no big deal. You're going to excuse it. You're going to justify it. A liberal will say, no, this is horrible. And it goes both ways. It's just, everything is used. Everything is spoken of via your political ideology. It's ridiculous. And the same thing happens within Christianity. If something happens with someone on your team, you typically defend it, justify it. But if it's someone on the other team, you condemn. Everything is divided. Everything is broken into ideological groups. It's just, it's maddening, but it's the way it actually occurs. So there is a dialectic between left and right, and between every other group that's out there. And you're either, and this is back to the email, and you're either in one group or another. As someone who is swimming upstream to try and find a way out of the dialectics, even sometimes I have an immediate thought. to some of the things you say, like, oh, that sounds like a leftist. People do that to me a lot. But then I immediately think, no, you can't think like that. It's not about left or right. It's about truth. But it's so hard. Now, I'm very grateful and can greatly, first, I appreciate them saying that, that sometimes they may immediately accuse me of being a leftist and like, well, it's not about left or right. It's not. I've said that over anything I say. It's not about being left. It's not about being right. It's about truth. It's about pursuing a correct way of understanding. And most importantly, from this podcast, I don't care about left or right. I care about looking at it from a theological perspective. I don't care if my theological perspective sounds leftist. I don't care. I have no allegiance to any political party, Democrat or Republican, liberal, conservative, MAGA, I don't care about your political teams. I don't care to play anybody's political reindeer games. I think politics is the very thing that has corrupted American Christianity to the point that it's almost, I don't even know if it's Christianity anymore. But yes, my perspective will sound very much leftist because most of the church has been so hijacked by a MAGA Republican mindset. And so you have to talk like that or you're immediately viewed as a leftist. So I appreciate their struggle and I appreciate them saying that greatly. I'm very grateful for this email. I'm very grateful for them saying that. But I do understand the struggle. Because if you think a certain way, the minute you hear something contrary to the way you think, you're going to immediately probably place it in a category. Well, if it's not like this, then it has to be that. And people do that to me theologically. I'll say something. You're an antinomian. What? No, I'm not an antinomian. You're this. You're this. Everybody wants to label me in a philological box. How about we just pursue truth? How about we just pursue what the text says? But everything's got to be labeled. Everything's got to be identified. And then you determine, oh, I'm against that team. Oh, no, you're on my team. Well, you think I'm on your team for five seconds. Trust me, sooner or later, you're going to be thinking, we're taking your jersey back because you're not on our team anymore. You know, we're going to beat you. You're going to have to, you know, you don't just walk away from this gang. You get taken out by being beaten down. Are you going to be beaten out of this gang? Basically, that's the way it works. But I do love the fact that they say, I immediately think, no, you can't think like that. It's not about left or right. It's about the truth. But it's so hard. I agree. Look, it's hard even for me. It's hard for everyone. We all find ourselves in this kind of never-ending trap. And then they go on to say, there's such a pulling from every group in our society. You are either with us or you are against us. What do you, what do you, what do you identify as so we can put you in the right category? That's true. That's society says that. What do you identify as so we can put you in the right category? Anyway, I humbly request that maybe you could do some more frequent current events stuff. That's a good request. It says, people are so confused out there and you're right. You said something in the Trump Gaza video about things moving fast. Yes, they are. I think I have a permanent case of whiplash, but this is a suggestion for you to think about. Now, I greatly appreciate them sharing their own struggle. I appreciate them trying to understand what I'm trying to do. I do appreciate that. And I do understand that I, look, I'm the worst person in many cases. If you want to listen to something that you're going to agree with, I almost have to warn anytime I do a broadcast, it doesn't matter what I do, hey, You're not going to agree with me because I almost know that no matter what I say, I tend to make someone mad because I just... When you turn on this broadcast, you don't know what you're going to get, right? You may get something that sounds conservative. You may get something that sounds liberal. You may get something that sounds dispensational. You may get something that sounds covenantal. Who knows what you're going to get? Because I'm trying to pursue truth. I don't care about any team. Zero. I'm not on your team. And I know that drives people crazy. They want to identify it. They want to categorize me. They want to put me in a box. But I wish we could find ways to get to the truth. Now, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I don't know what to do here. I don't know. I don't know. So I started thinking about this. Now, what's interesting is I've been having this debate with myself off and on for a long time. All right. So here's my conflict. Here's my conflict. I'm just going to work, work, just kind of talk through this and, and then you're free to share your thoughts. Doing any kind of podcast about current events, about world events, Like about the, just say for today, I mean the big story for the last, what, 24, 48 hours has been the entire governmental officials in a group chat. laying out details for an attack plan. I know they don't want to call it a war plan. Is it classified? Is it not classified? Is it highly sensitive material? I mean, I could talk about my own time in the United States military with a top secret clearance, the different things I did with very important information, top secret information or sensitive information, how we communicated. I could get into my own personal experiences, but I I mean, we could talk about it. How did the reporter get invited in? Do we attack the reporter? Because that seems to be one of the things the Trump administration wants to do. He's a piece of trash. He's dirt. Okay. Well, the point is he's got your actual text messages. We didn't say this. Well, here's more text messages. It appears you did say that. Okay. So we could get into all of that, right? So how do we cover it? If you try to cover it finding truth, you're going to tick off somebody. You're going to tick off the MAGA supporters. You're probably going to tick off the Democrats. You're going to tick off someone because what we need is truth. But then how much time do you spend on it, right? Because it's a developing story, right? If you go from how it was first reported and then they attacked the reporter so that basically the reporter is like, oh, you want to attack me? Well, here's the rest of them. OK, so so that story was changing. So that would mean you do a broadcast, but then you got to do another broadcast and then you have to do another. So that that means covering that one story probably would have turned into 10 broadcasts, maybe 15, maybe 20. And then you got to try to deal with, you're going to get strong reactions against you. So then you try to answer that. I mean, that's just one story. I mean, I could go into a number of issues. Everything happening in the government right now, everything the Trump administration is doing, just insanity, the tariffs. We could get into, I'm going to put on a tariff. Well, I'm not going to hold off on a tariff. I'm going to put on a tariff. I'm not going to put on a tariff. No, I'm going to put on another. Well, I'm not going to put on a tariff. the never-ending insanity going on with the Republicans and conservatives turning against Ukraine and supporting Russia. All of a sudden to be conservative, and I guess to be a conservative Christian, you have to be pro-Russia. What world is this? When did this happen? On and on and on and on and on. See, just saying some of those things, I'm already ticking off some people. So to try to talk about that, man, Can you just do that once a week? I don't know. How often? See, it no longer becomes theology central. It becomes current events central. But at the same time, I can understand the need to try to provide balance. Now, my main concern has been the churches being so corrupted by all of this that, to me, the most dangerous thing is for Christians to not only be corrupted by it, but to be consumed by it, right? Because you can become consumed by it. And the next thing you know, you're just like, oh, this news article and this news article, and then this is happening and this is happening, okay? And this is going on. And this, I mean, like I said, I mean, just look here. I'm just gonna go to, I'm just gonna pull this up really quick. Okay, hang on. Okay. Yeah, I mean, we've got RFK Jr. plans, 10,000 job cuts and major restructuring of the health department. I mean, that's a major thing. Republicans out of the loop as Musk takes axe to Social Security Administration. That's pretty serious. global leaders raising in polls as they battle Trump. I mean, more Americans than ever are dipping into retirement funds prematurely. That's talking about how the possible impact on the economy and what's going on. Now Trump is claiming 25% on all cars not made in the U.S. Tesla, one of only winners. Well, isn't that interesting that Tesla would win because who owns, okay, we can get into all of that. I have a list of all the tariffs Trump has enacted, threatened, and then canceled. Florida has to roll back child labor laws to fill jobs left by undocumented migrants, immigrants. 14 year olds can now work overnight shifts. What in the world is going on with the child labor laws in Florida? Well, hey, we don't have enough immigrants to do these jobs. So let's get young kids who can do these jobs as young as the age of 14. And guess what? We can pay them a lot less. So yeah, I mean, that kind of crazy craziness. I mean, I'm just going on. I could just look here one story after another story after another story. Once you get, oh, and then Well, there's so many stories. I could just spin, literally, it would be never-ending. So it would stop being theology central, and it becomes current events central. Well, to me, it's not so much taking those stories apart, it's how these stories are impacted how they impact Christianity. For example, I think I have here, for example, the SBC, Southern Baptist Convention, they have spent nearly $13 million on expenses related to sex abuse investigations. $13 million by the Southern Baptist Convention. Oh, there's a lot we could talk about that, right? We could talk about that. So you've got church news, you've got what's going on in the world, you've got things going on in the world that seems to be impacting Christianity. Let's see here, where do I, did I save the story? I don't know if I did. Let me see here. Let me look here. I've got a number of stories here. Yeah, here's the story. We've completely lost the plot on Andrew Tate, talking about how Christian men and Christian young men are fascinated by Andrew Tate. Well, what in the world is that all about, right? I mean, the man's been accused of all kinds of sexual crimes, and then so the church, so many Christians or conservatives defend him, and then guess what just happens? I got the news story right here. Tate accused of choking a woman two weeks after the Trump administration helped him return to the USA. So then we could get into a discussion about that. It's just there's so much. So do we just deal with the current event? Do we deal with the current event and how it relates to Christianity? And you just see it becomes this all-consuming thing. But I started thinking about how would I possibly address this? How would I possibly address this? So I started thinking. And what's interesting here is I've gone back and forth on this numerous times. In fact, I was going to create a podcast or a podcast series. something along the idea of not left, not right. News that's not coming from a left perspective or a right perspective, but then that would be a news podcast and it would be dedicated to news. Maybe from a theological perspective, but you see, then that becomes almost like a 24-7 type thing. So then I started thinking, well, maybe Maybe we refer to this as truth beyond the dialectic because the emailer used the term dialectic. And I thought, well, maybe I could do something like, maybe my intro could be like in a world where everything is pulled left or right, where every headline demands your allegiance and every issue tries to put you in a category. Sometimes we just need a place to stop breathe, and think biblically. This is truth beyond the dialectic, a space where we step outside the noise, outside the tribes, and look at the world through the lens of scripture, not slogans. We're not here to tell you what side to join. We're here to ask the harder question, what's True. The headlines are loud. The pressure is real. But truth hasn't changed. And that's where we begin. I could do that could be my introduction. I even thought about how to do an introduction about that. That sounds good. But see, do you know what we're going after? What's true? Well, you know what that requires? That may take every news story. and then try to figure out, okay, here's what the left is saying, here's what the right is saying, and then try to figure out the truth. That's gonna require like a lot of work. Sometimes it's pretty obvious, but a lot of times it requires a lot of work. So I could do something like this. Well, then I kind of broke it down to more like a script form, but I'm not going to repeat it because it's basically the same thing just done in a kind of a different format. I think if we kind of look at really what's going on in the world, I think we have this endless left versus right conflict, but I think that's just what we see on the surface. This never-ending left versus right conflict, I think it's just what we see on the surface. I think it's the symptom. I don't think it's the disease. The real crisis runs deeper. I think the real crisis we're facing in the world and we're facing in the church runs much deeper. So how do I address this? Here's what I think is going on. Number one, I think people are finding their identity in political tribes rather than in Christ, and that's a major spiritual problem. It's not just a social one. When someone's deepest sense of self is tied to a party, an ideology, or a cultural label, then that becomes their functional god. It shapes their ethics. It shapes their emotions. It shapes their loyalties. Ultimately, it shapes their theology. See, I think this left-right fight, getting pulled one way or the other, that's just a symptom. The real problem is that people are finding their identity in a political tribe. They're left. They're right. They're woke. They're anti-woke. They're MAGA. They're anti-MAGA. That's where everyone finds their identity. I'm conservative. I'm this. I'm that. And it comes into the church, where our identity is supposed to be in Christ. It's become all of these other things. So it's a spiritual problem. It's not a social one. And let me state it again, when someone's deepest sense of self is tied to a party or to an ideology or to a cultural label, that becomes their functional God. They may still mention God, they still may mention the Christian God, but the Christian God simply becomes a utility, a tool in order to support their political ideology. It begins to shape your ethics, it shapes your emotions, it shapes your loyalties, and it ultimately destroys, forget shaping your theology, it destroys it. It leaves your theology in shambles. So I think that's the real first problem. The second problem is truth has become optional or weaponized. We now live in a time where truth is not just ignored, it is actively bent, blurred, or buried under layers of misinformation. In many circles, even in the church, truth is valued only when it's useful for your side. The commandment not to bear false witness doesn't stop at lying. It includes twisting facts, repeating rumors, or staying silent when truth is needed most. Truth has been weaponized. And everyone will say, no, I don't want misinformation. I have the truth. And then you listen to them talking like you're just giving misinformation from the other side. You don't like this misinformation, but you're giving your own misinformation. Truth is simply a word used to spread your own misinformation. And guess what? If you hear truth from the other side, you just call it fake news. So truth is labeled as fake news, but truth is also labeled to identify and classify your own misinformation. So, what are the real problems in this world? People are finding identity in politics rather than in Christ, truth has become optional or weaponized, and false accusations and slander are normalized, even spiritualized. We've reached a point where people can slander others in the name of God as if the end justifies the means. That's a terrifying development because it makes sin seem righteous, and when the church baptizes political hostility, it loses its moral credibility and its prophetic voice. We have to see what's going on in our world with a sobering accuracy. We have to get there. It's not about being caught in the left or right. It's about being caught in a much deeper lie that power, identity, and belonging can be found outside of Christ, and that truth is just another tool in the fight. So how do I address this? How do I fight it? How do I combat it? Do I wanna sign up for basically enlist in the army and dedicate 24-7 to it? Well, in some cases it needs to be done. We gotta fight these things. Again, I still think the issue is the church has been so corrupted by all of this. Well, if I turn the podcast into just dealing with all of these facts, then we're not addressing what's going on in the church. Because then guess what happens? Okay, I go with what the Trump administration did with this group. I'm just keep mentioning this because it's been the dominant news story. with this crazy group chat where they invited a reporter in and they ended up, you know, basically letting out, you know, attack plans, okay, before the attack took place. Ridiculous, crazy, a mishandling of sensitive information, all the other problems with this, all the different things about what was taking place. I could sit there and fight this. Well, guess what? I would do a broadcast, then Trump supporters would come at me saying, this is not true. So then I got to go look at all of their claims. Then I have to come and respond to, well, this is the claims being made, but this is not true, or this is true, and this is not true. And it's just, I mean, you could spend forever because no matter what the story is, whatever I say, this side's going to argue against it. This side's going to argue against it. And then I have to then try to prove, but then again, any information I give to try to prove this side wrong, they're going to say, that's false news. That's fraudulent news. I don't know. I will not listen to that source. Yeah. Because the only source you'll listen to is the source that already agrees with your side. And so then it becomes like, how do we view primary sources, secondary sources? You're like, it's a never ending. It's like just jumping off a cliff into the bottomless pit. You're never going to hit the bottom and it's never going to end. And I don't think it's ever going to fix anything. So do I create some kind of like a plan or strategy? Do I say something like, I reject the lie that truth belongs to a political side? Is that revolutionary to even say? I reject the lie that truth belongs to a political side. No one political side has the market or the corner on the truth. I refuse to find my identity in parties, ideologies, or cultural movements. I will not be labeled by man when I'm supposed to be focused on being named by God. In a world where misinformation spreads like wildfire, where slander is strategy, and where bearing false witness is a daily ritual, I want to choose a better way. I don't believe, I believe truth is not subjective. I believe it is not flexible. I believe it is not owned by the left or the right. Truth is fixed. Truth is eternal. Truth is supposed to be rooted in God's word and revealed in Christ. I believe that lies, when spoken by the right side, are still lies. I believe that half-truths are full betrayals of the truth. I believe silence in the face of deception is complicity. I will not speak to win arguments, but I would like to speak to try to bear witness to the truth. In this space, I would like to think biblically before I ever think politically. I don't want to be provoked into categories. I would like to try to test every spirit. I would like to test every claim. I would like to, and I would like to, you know, be committed to the word of God more than anything else. I don't want to be left. I don't want to be right. I would like to be on the side of truth. I would like to cut through the partisan noise with some kind of clarity rooted in scripture. I would like to challenge the false identities people form around ideological or ideologies and political movements. I would like to challenge those false identities. I would like to expose lies, expose half-truths. I would like to expose misinformation, regardless of from where it comes from. If it comes from the pulpit, if it comes from Christian radio, if it comes from a sermon, if it comes from a political party. I'd like to call Christians back to the standard of truth. I would like to encourage discernment in a world that demands allegiance over understanding. I don't want to be politically safe. I would like to be spiritually faithful. Those are some things I would like to do. Those are some thoughts I've had. But again, how do I do this? Where's the balance? I have no idea where the balance is. I don't even know what to do. And I do feel bad that people are out there tossed this way and tossed that way, and you don't know what to listen to. Look, I've had my own frustrations listening to sermons. I'm like, what? And well, five seconds, not true, not true, not accurate, fraudulent information, misinformation. I mean, how many times have we handed sermons to artificial intelligence? I can spend my life just going, I cut myself off there. How many times have we handed sermons over to artificial intelligence to be shown all the flaws, all the errors, all the wrong information inside sermons? We've done that throughout most of this year. Well, I could spend my life just trying to correct all the logical fallacies, hermeneutical errors, and factual errors in sermons. That's before we even get to the world. We can't even get truth. We can't even speak the truth in our sermons. I mean, how many times have we demonstrated that? So then do I then say, well, I'm going to leave sermons today and go focus on what's going on in the world. Sometimes it does have to be addressed. I struggled with this. Once Trump won the election, I'm like, what do I do? How much of this do I address? Because if I say anything negative about Trump, anything, anything negative about the Trump administration at all, well, conservative Christians will turn on this podcast in 5.2 seconds. I'll lose half of my audience who are probably Trump supporters. Most of my church is probably made up of Trump supporters and Trump voters. But you can't criticize him. It's like a cult. You criticize him, you're like criticizing God. Now, if I criticize the left, well, then the people on the right will be like, yeah, about time, go after those woke liberals. We don't need them. They're the evil. They're destroying our country. And most of the time, very liberal people, most of the time, very quote unquote woke, very liberal people, most of the time are not probably listening to a theology podcast. So I'm not going to really offend them because they're not probably listening. So then do I go after the woke ideology? You're just preaching to the choir. because the conservative people listening to you already think the woke people are bad. So to me, what you need to do is go after the things that are more focused on people on the right and conservatives. Well, then you lose all the people. Well, if you deal with current events, I don't know what to do. I started by talking about being conflicted, confused, discouraged, depressed. I don't know what to do. I really don't. I'm sometimes just like... Oh, I'm looking at, I'm just getting all kinds of new, uh, podcast, uh, updates, which deals with news items, right. Uh, deals with crazy stuff in the news. Okay. Handle. Let me look here. Yeah. I, I'm sometimes it's just like, you just don't know. Um, Yeah, I'm just looking here at all the latest news stories. And sometimes you just don't even know, you know, what to do here. Trump is to sign more executive orders today. So, yeah, I mean, and I understand that nobody is asking, and I understand the emailers not asking me to do that 24-7. I know that. I'm aware of that. No, I don't think anybody wants me to do it 24-7. The key is, when do you do it and when do you not? When do you step in and when do you not? How much do you cover? How much do you not? Here's what I will say. Do I create a pod – I mean we got news commentary as a podcast series. We do. We could change the name of that maybe or we could leave it as news commentary. Maybe we could update the artwork. I don't know. And still try to find times to engage in covering what's going on. but within reason, right? I don't want to turn this into a 24-7 news podcast. I don't want that. I'd lose my mind and I'd be committed. I'd be in a straight jacket. It'd be the end, right? Because that's just... I mean, it's on one hand, you can find a little bit of adrenaline trying to pursue and trying to find like, all right, guys, we're back. All right. We looked into this. All right, guys, we're back. We broke in. But then all of a sudden you become consumed. And then one hour turns into two hours and three hours turns into five hours. Five hours turned into eight hours. And then at one o'clock in the morning, I'm like, guys, we just got new information. Because whenever you deal with news, it's it's developing. It's changing. It's more to it, more to it. And then If you talk about it once, are you going to talk about the updates to it? Because I'm telling you that story is going to change 37 times. Again, just take the whole situation with the Trump administration and this chat group. You had the initial story. You had all the claims the Trump administration made then, and then all their attacks upon the reporter. And then the reporter was like, well, here's more of the chats within disproved everything the Trump administration had already said and made them out to be liars. Okay. So like how many different times, just that one story, I would still be reporting on it today. I mean, you got what this side is saying. You see that it's so difficult. At the same time, while I'm doing all of that, right, while I'm doing all of that, hang on, let me go here. I got The Sacred Diary. It's a famous book. I have that open. I won't go into everything about The Sacred Diary, but yeah, it's a famous book. All right, in the meantime, I could go right here And, well, what do we have? Well, we have, here are some of the newest sermons. 5,364 new sermons have been added to the Sermon Audio app and the website in the last week. The newest one is David's Humiliation, 1 Samuel 21-23. That could be interesting to hear. What is Presbyterianism? That could be interesting. A shield of faith. The day that it all changed. Psalm 119, 105-112, a guiding light. Did Jesus lie? The biblical case for the eternal security, I'm assuming, of the believer. The days of Noah. Oh, I bet you if they connect that to Matt, oh, I bet you we could have some time with that. War and peace. The why of prayer. A concluding petition for prayer in life. Righteousness and justice. Repentance in a believer's life. Oh, I bet you that could turn into an entire series. Woe is me if I preach not. We have Romans part five and part six, the great white throne set apart in the world. Romans part four, Romans part three, physical and spiritual sayings. Romans part two, Romans part two, learning to pray. Romans part one, are you eternally saved? Bear one another's burdens. You have chosen me. I could just spend, you know, I could do five hours a day just going through sermons and what is people preaching and what's being said and how is the text being handled. And then that typically then leads into, well, Let's do our own series. That's what is going on with the Acts 27 situation and the storms of life. That's what's going on with Isaiah 40 through 55. But at the same time, sometimes you've got to address what's going on in the world to give people some kind of balance. I'm often conflicted about what to do. I am very conflicted. And then I just have to be kind of honest as well. Sometimes I'm conflicted because, well, what am I really accomplishing, right? What am I really doing? What am I really even accomplishing? And then second, I know this is going to sound very fleshly. This is going to sound very worldly. It's going to sound very ungodly, but I'm just going to be brutally honest with you, right? if you go look at all the podcasts out there, right? I mean, I was listening to a podcast just the other night where he was looking at a clip of a Protestant pastor talking to a Catholic man in the park, right? Well, this man was going after the Protestant pastor on some of the ridiculous things he said, obviously not understanding Catholicism. And I'm like, okay. But right at the beginning of the video, he's like, now, Ladies and gentlemen, please continue to support me because this is now my full-time job." And he's now dedicated himself to just doing YouTube videos to make a living. Well, my podcast, I don't make a living doing this. Nowhere close, all right? We get enough support to basically pay for just broadcasting, basically. Maybe a little bit more, but that goes, of course, directly to the church currently. But it's like, well, so do how much, you know, I know it's going to sound fleshly. How much do you do when you're not getting paid? Right? Since the church has kind of basically come to an end, the church has basically come to an end, right? There was a time all of my internet ministry was seen as trying to bring people to the church. It was a part of the church ministry. Since the church concept is kind of basically over for me now, I'm just basically a podcaster, well then, what do you do? What do you do? Do you turn it into a full-time job that you're not getting paid for? barely making enough, barely getting enough in to just pay for what you're doing, just to cover the cost. Now, at the same time, you don't want people to have to pay anything, right? So you definitely would never put anything behind a paywall. So obviously we'd never do that. And even if I did that, I don't even think it would matter. But yeah, so then you have to just look at how much, it's very difficult. There's a million things out there to cover. And you can tell that I've already put together kind of a way to approach it, right? I've already put together kind of a name. I've already put together kind of my intro. You've already heard my intro. You kind of already heard kind of like my, you could call it my manifesto or my, you know, my, what do you, what do you want to call it? My, mission statement. I could call it truth beyond the dialectic. I could do that. I've already got the name in my mind, you know, not left, not right. I mean, I broke that all down, right? Remember how in a world where everything is pulled left or right, where every headline demands your allegiance and every issue tries to put you and a category. Sometimes we just need a place to stop, breathe, and think biblically. This is Truth Beyond the Dialectic, a space where we step outside the noise, outside the tribes, and look at the world through the lens of Scripture, not slogans. We're not here to tell you what side to join. We're here to ask the harder question, what's true? The headlines are loud, the pressure is real, but truth hasn't changed, and that's where we began. I mean, that's basically my intro if I wanted to create a said podcast like that, but then Because even if I just do a segment, a Truth Beyond the Dialectic segment, make it its own series, on some cases, I'm like, yeah, I know we need to deal with it. On the other, I'm like, I don't know what to do. So what do you think is most needed today? If you were to just try to process, what is most needed today? What is most needed? Challenging the church and its very questionable hermeneutical approach to scripture? challenging this devotional mindset that destroys scripture of its historical meaning, its historical context, and its actual meaning? Do we need to focus on challenging the church and stop being so politically hijacked? And the way we do that is by trying to get the focus on something other than the politics? Do we address the craziness going on in the world where truth is laying in the street bleeding out? And we got to somehow try to go back and say, no, no, no, this is true. This is true. This is false. This is false. This is false. Do we need that? Or do I just say, you know what? The world's on fire, the world's burning, and I don't have enough water to try to put it out. I'm just gonna try to focus on my own spiritual life and try to survive. Now that sounds very selfish. Do I say, yeah, this is needed, but it's a huge job, and then do I do it very fleshly and selfish and say, but guys, that's a full-time job that I'm not getting paid for. Or do I say, who cares if I'm getting paid for it? Who cares? Just dig in. Give up my entire life to try to fight it. But what am I really going to be fighting? What I'm going to be fighting, to me, all I'll be doing is, I mean, just look at all the popular podcasts. They have to take a side. All the popular podcasts take sides. You're either over here in the conservative side or you're over here in the liberal side. Where's the podcast that is in the middle? You're going to get shot from both sides. Nobody wants truth. Nobody wants ballots. I don't want to say no one. Obviously the emailer does, and I'd greatly appreciate it. Maybe there's more people out there that do. So maybe there is, maybe that's the direction to go. But then do I abandon the theological? Now, how do you merge the theological with it? Because both are needed, right? We got to go after the lies, the truth, try to find balance, try to find reason, try to find logic, try to find thoughtfulness. At the same time, we can't just throw out the theological. So you need a mixture of both. That means, well, then you get us being produced the theological content, but you gotta also be, it is very, I know I just cut myself off again. You also gotta produce the other content. There's gotta be a way to balance it out. There's gotta be a better approach. I haven't figured it out yet. Now, I spent almost an hour talking about this, And you know where I'm at? I'm right at where I was at the beginning. Conflicted, confused, discouraged, frustrated, irritated, depressed, despondent. I don't just keep throwing in words, want to give up, don't know, have no clue, stuck. Now, some days I have some clarity. I'm like, all right, I'm ready to go. I'm motivated. I'm like, we're going to do this. And then sometimes after a couple of hours, you're like, you know what? I don't even think anybody out there cares. What do you think is needed? If you were sitting down, you got a pencil and a notebook, you're like, what is needed right now? What is most needed inside the church? What is most needed for Christians right now? What is needed? Is there really a need that rises to the top of every other need? What do you think the need is right now? I don't know if I know. I do know, well, I'll put it this way. I do know, I mean, I talked about what I thought the real issues were, right? I talked about what I thought the real issues are. I'll repeat them really quick, right? Because I think, number one, people are finding identity in political tribes rather than in Christ. We've got to fight that. Truth has become optional or weaponized and that false accusations and slanders are normalized, even spiritualized. But to me, it's not about going back, trying to fix or fact check everything. It's about trying to get Christians to stop doing it. Care about truths. Find the truth. Stop bearing false witness. Stop slandering. Stop dehumanizing. Is it more about trying to get Christians to act like Christians, at least in these areas? Can you imagine trying to fact check the world today? Can you imagine? I don't know. I mean, it would be insane. All right, well, I'll stop right there. Now my ear just started ringing like so loud. I don't know what just happened. Is the devil talking about me? Is that that old saying, if your ear starts ringing, it's because the devil's talking about you? Is that the way it goes? So my ears just started ringing so loud. Is the devil talking? Is that what's talking? Or is it the listeners right now talking about me going, this guy's a complete and utter idiot. He's a moron. Maybe. This whole episode's been complete trash, probably. Do we need to create a podcast series entitled Truth Beyond the Dialectic? Cool name. I've got cool ideas. Ideas are great. The execution, the pulling those ideas off is something far different. I don't know what the answer is. I don't have any answers. And I'm going to end you with having no answers, but I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks for listening. Everyone have a great day. God bless.