Ideas Have Consequences

Christianity + Secularism = Liberalism while Secularism - Christianity = Woke Tyranny.Where do our freedoms come from? From God, He created us to be free. But in our fallen world, free societies are the exception, not the norm. Historically, free societies are the fruit of the Judeo-Christian worldview, which establishes our liberties as God-given and, therefore, an inalienable right. Abandon God, and you abandon the only sure basis for human freedom and free societies. Western “liberalism” finds its source here and nowhere else. To dive deeper into this topic, check out our newest blog: Freedom: Where Does It Come From?

If you are a Christian, you have a vital role to play in fulfilling The Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” While this most certainly includes cross-cultural missions, it also includes bringing the reality of God’s Kingdom into your family, your friendships, and your vocation. You are called to be a missionary to transform the place God has you for His glory.

"The church as an organization will never transform society. The church as a people will transform a nation; they have that power. The Holy Spirit is on the people, not on the organization." -- Luis Sena In honor of our dear friend and biblical worldview champion, Luis Sena, we dedicated this episode to reflecting on some of his key messages and teachings. This is a brief overview of a life's worth of incredible insights into how to live out a biblical worldview in every area of life today.

As believers, we need to remember that Christ’s redeeming work extends to all of His creation. As followers of Jesus, we are rescued from the dominion of darkness and empowered by Christ’s spirit to fulfill our original task given in Genesis chapter one. To be vice-regents who rightly rule over creation. We are to care for creation and use our God-given agency, imagination, creativity, and language to form even greater beauty, diversity, order, resources, and abundance for the glory of the King and the good of our neighbors. 

Mother Teresa, who spent years ministering to the dying and homeless in Calcutta, India, once said that New York City was the most impoverished place she had ever been. Why would she say that? She clearly saw poverty as more than a lack of money. She was using a broader biblical definition. In this episode, we examine the question: What is poverty? How we answer this question depends on our worldview. The biblical worldview sees poverty as more than material lack. When we look at the subject of poverty through the lens of a biblical worldview, we will begin to see the poor in new ways. We may even find that they are in our neighborhoods and our families in ways we never saw before. All of us are faced with poverty every day. What can we do to help the poor around us in our daily lives? 

This is a short debrief discussion Dwight, Darrow, and Scott had after recording episode 14, "Hijacked Freedom: with Os Guinness."

Freedom is under attack in the West as never before. Many have redefined freedom to mean “doing whatever you want.” In this episode, we explain why this is not freedom at all and explore what true freedom is, and what it will take to defend and sustain it. As Christians, we need to understand the critical importance of freedom to fully understand who our heavenly Father is and who He made us to be. Our special guest in this episode is Os Guinness. Os is one of the great biblical worldview thinkers of our generation and has written many recent books exploring the topic of liberty. 

Narratives, propaganda, fake news, misinformation... you have all heard these terms thrown around continuously. The question is, in a storm of confusion, how do we find the truth about what's going on? J.I. Packer once said, "The Evangelical is not afraid of facts, for he knows that all facts are God's facts; nor is he afraid of thinking, for he knows that all truth is God's truth, and right reason cannot endanger sound faith." Don't let narratives and propaganda discourage you from searching for facts and truth. We hope this episode will encourage you to boldly continue your search for truth.

God created all people and cultures equal in terms of their inherent, God-given value, but clearly, not all cultures are the same. Some have higher levels of freedom, justice, and prosperity, while others have far less and, instead, higher levels of poverty, crime, and corruption. How do we account for these differences? At the root, all cultural differences can be traced to differences in worship. At the center of culture is “cult” or religion. From these deep roots, cultural values are formed, and values drive differences in policies, laws, norms, and institutions. These, in turn, have consequences for the nation, for good, or for ill. When a nation worships the one true and living God, it shapes its values, norms, and institutions differently than a culture rooted in idolatry.  As followers of Jesus, we are to lovingly serve our nations in ways that contribute to good fruit. In short, we are to work for the blessing of our nations. 

This is a short debrief discussion we had after recording episode 10, "Public Practical Theology: with Bob Osburn." We invite you to join us as we wrestle with a few practical questions that seem to be overlooked in this day and age. Questions such as, why are we focused on spirituality when the Bible is focused on our life? Or, do you have to evangelize before you disciple?