Albert Mohler - Ask Anything Live | Episode 9

hello welcome to ask anything live I'm your host albert Mohler I'm speaking to you from the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky for the next hour I'll be answering your questions about theology ethics culture politics frankly anything that is an important question as we try to think as Christians and think through the Christian biblical worldview to submit your questions you can fill out the form and ask anything live.com or if you're watching on facebook live you can submit your question in the comment section below again you can send your questions to ask anything live.com or if you are right now participating through Facebook you can submit your question right in the comment section underneath so without any further delay let's get right to the questions question comes from Samuel my wife and I have a two-year-old and are already considering education options in the future I'm very hesitant to consider public school because of transgender ideology what would you counsel parents facing this kind of decision Sam Samuel god bless you and first of all for being godly parents you and your wife to this little boy and congratulations to you for thinking ahead that's really important because educational decisions are amongst the most important decisions that Christian parents will ever make and it's hardly too early you are thinking as you ought to think and in several ways before I talk about what kinds of options Christian parents might have let me just affirm the fact that every single home is a context of home schooling the question is whether it's done well or poorly every home is a school the home is the first school it is the first government by God's intention it's the first church also by God's design that's how important the family is and one of the things I think Christian parents have had to think through in more recent decades is that we have as parents a non-delegable responsibility for the Reg occation of our children it's not something we can simply delegate to others and previous generations of Christians Protestant Christians in the United States in particular could simply punt on that question just assume we've got Safe Schools that's why we've paired taxes for we've got good schools they're gonna teach phonics they're gonna teach reading and writing and arithmetic and they're going to teach citizenship and it's going to be a good wholesome place for for kids to be now I want to say that my parents assumed that godly Christian parents I don't think they really ever considered sending me anywhere then but to the public schools and that was a fairly safe assumption when they made that decision in Polk County Florida back in the early 1960s it made sense most of the school teachers were sunday school teachers as well and the range of worldview was really extremely narrow it was all basically a a Christian worldview if not taught by regenerate teachers although I think most of them were then the context of a cultural Christianity in which the basic moral and worldview assumptions of Christianity were absolutely and unquestioned in their dominance in the educational process that's not so anymore and it's really interesting that the specific issue you raised is transgender and I want to tell you that that's not accidental that's extremely perceptive and and one of the reasons it is because you're looking at a whole moral revolution everything from pornography to a secularized context you're looking at a redefinition of citizenship and and frankly the abdication of the schools and many responsibility for that kind of moral development but on the other hand the T even an LGBTQ stands out and one of the reasons is because I found this out when I was preaching in a state about two years ago and parents told me look our state has a law requiring a parental opt-out option for kids on sex education but they discovered that their child then a seventh grader have been receiving an incredible indoctrination into the LGBTQ worldview but in particular the T and it's because there was no opt-out because the school had classified it not as sex education but as gender education and that went around the lated provision and and thus they they really realize they had already lost a lot of ground with their own seventh grader who came home spouting the moral revolution and because of the authority of a teacher in the classroom I don't think there's any one answer to this and I'm going to have to make this answer shorter than it's a it is apparently turning out to be in order to get to some other questions but the question is so huge I want to answer it faithfully and so I would say this I think Christian parents in the context of conversation with other Christian parents and in a biblically ordered Church need to have this discussion and it will not be the case I think that all Christian parents will come to the same conclusion even as they share the same convictions in the same worldview children are somewhat different there are options that would fit some children that would not fit other children and but there is generally I think or should be a consensus among Christians that it is no accident that private Christian schools Christian education has arisen and grown exponentially during this very revolution for the reasons we're speaking and by the way that doesn't mean you can trust every school that advertises itself to be Christian it must be genuinely Christian must be Christian and its requirements of those who will teach and I believe it has to be Christian in the responsibility and identity of those who will be students and families represented or I'll just predict eventually the Christian identity the school will be lost if for market reasons then nothing else you also have the reality that classical Christian schools and and classical schools are a new option that has picked up a very old educational tradition I'm a big proponent of those schools and have been glad to speak at many of the conventions of the classical Christian educators and I think they're really doing something very important and and then homeschooling is a huge option and and there are intermediary options like consortium schools and programs and these are things that you may find out a lot about in your conversation with other parents in the local church and this is one of those issues Christians I want to talk about and Samuel I want to congratulate you and and your wife or thinking ahead that's a very responsible thing to do in this environment we're going to go to Humble Texas where Charles asked a question what is a biblical response to a Christian brother who believes in conspiracy theories such as a new world order Illuminati etc okay I love the question I love the question Charles because it is a great question and I love the question because it it's encouraging to me in accordance with the Christian biblical worldview to know that somehow for some reason there is a town in Texas that is called humble I I think there's something magnificent in that there ought to be one in every state but I'll just tell you given the pride of the state of Texas somehow it has to be explained how a town got to be named humble I'm gonna think maybe it was named for mr. humble but nonetheless when you think about that question this gets to something that fascinated me as a teenager as a teenage boy I was just really interested in many of these conspiracy theories and they weren't then available on the Internet this required books and sometimes meetings and literature and magazines and you know there's a common thread behind this and that common thread is something that we as Christians thinking theologically need to understand there is within us a deep quest to want to know what's behind this what's really going on what's the explanation for all these apparently disconnected unconnected phenomena and occurrences and let me tell you what gives conspiracy theories credence two things number one our understanding of sin and and that's we're not really surprised when we see evil operating in a conspiratorial way so we have a theology that tells us and basically there's a human instinct that tells us there are people who probably right now are plotting very evil things and getting away with it so that's a theological assumption the other reason why conspiracy theories appealed to us is because they fill in all the gaps of of what we don't know and so we can't connect why this app and that happened and why this person is here and that person is doing this a conspiracy theory helps us to tie it all together and that's very emotionally satisfying there's another advantage to conspiracy theories and that is that they're virtually impossible to absolutely disprove and I discovered this and I discovered it against a teenager because I came to know some people who believed in the Illuminati whom you mentioned here by the way this doesn't when I say believed in them and there's a conspiracy theory that doesn't mean that no such group ever existed it just means that that they almost certainly didn't exist in the way it was described and and with the effects and an extensive involvement that were that were there used as the explanation so it just so happens that that this was raised as an issue in such a way that it was actually an easily disprovable fact and and I mean easily dispositive so once I made that point and I provided just credible evidence then I got this kind of knowing look from the person with whom I was speaking and he said well you see they've already they've already duped you and again so there's the the the advantage of a conspiracy theory is if you don't believe it you're just a part of it or or or you're a victim of it but let me say there's another reason throughout history there's some of these conspiracy theories gained credibility and credence they gain a little bit of traction and that is because some of them turn out to be true so you know if you're going back a few centuries there are a lot of conspiracies concerning the Freemasons that throughout much of medieval and early modern and even enlightenment societies turn out a lot of that was true and so the the conspiracies that are related to major political movements from the the Russian Revolution turns out some of those things turn out to be true here's a test though for Christians and I appreciate the way you ask the question Charles how do you speak with a brother number one every Christian needs to be ready to off real evidence for why we believe what we believe and and that evidence can't be well I just know these things I read it somewhere and and it can't be the emotional satisfaction of having an answer that provides satisfaction to everything the reality is we have every theological reason to believe that there are real conspiracies but in order to be a conspiracy you've got to operate in secret that's kind of the idea of a conspiracy but what we might call the most devastating plans for evil are really rather open conspiracies so that's the thing there's enough to worry about that's very much in the open when we ask why are certain things happening we can generally trace that to human ideas and human agents you don't need the conspiracy theory and the conspiracy theory often just becomes a kind of intellectual talisman item of fascination and yeah so you know Charles I would just say remind your friend we're a people the truth where are you going to start with that and and and boy there's just a whole lot more truth we can get ahold of verifiable through the kind of authorities we would all agree to trust that explains to us and that begins with the Bible the Bible tells us of the ultimate conspiracy that was begun by Satan and and in Romans chapter 1 we're told that all humanity fallen humanity is in a conspiracy to rob God of his glory to subvert the truth in unrighteousness I guess it's not a conspiracy it's not secret if we've been told that it's real but but that's the that's the ultimate conspiracy and and that one starts and ends in the Bible Charles thank you so much a question Stacy from Madison Mississippi I've long struggled with the death penalty whenever I hear a scriptural defense of the death penalty it's Old Testament verses my issue is that we don't condone the stoning of those who commit adultery or cutting off of the hands of those who steal can you help me understand this issue with Scripture yeah Madison that's a good way to ask the question a good honest way it even begins when you say long struggle with the death penalty you know as you look even just at the Old Testament we're gonna go to the New Testament but let's just think about the Old Testament for a moment the Old Testament does indeed call for the death penalty for certain offenses but what's most important and this is really crucial what's most important is that the death penalty for premeditated murder is what is drilled deeply into the logic of Scripture and in right in the noahic covenant and the Covenant that God made with humanity through Noah as you look at Genesis 9 that there God tells Noah that the death penalty for premeditated murder is right and and and necessary because the one who's would seek to slay the image of God and man forfeits his own life and that's that that's a tough tough logic but I think we can understand it and it's it's it's coming on a very important biblical authority here this is a part of the Covenant Alyss turi of the biblical faith it's not just a part of the Old Testament law it's it's a part of that covenant already and of course it is picked up in the New Testament in particular in Romans chapter 13 where in speaking of the responsibility of government Paul writes that the the government does not bear the power of the sword in vain the power of the sword is the death penalty that's that's that's just what's being referred to there and I think we can understand that now I think we also have to understand Madison that this means that the death penalty as we think of it biblically should be applied for only the rarest and most egregious of crimes and premeditated murder is at the very top of that list you know there's something very interesting going on in America right now I'm here speaking in November of 2018 just a few days after that horrible tragedy in Pittsburgh and here's something I want you to know a lot of Americans I don't believe in the death penalty I never believe in the death penalty I believe the death penalty ought to be abolished are the very same people who in the immediate aftermath of that horrifying murderous premeditated attack upon that synagogue said only the death penalty will do this also happened with the Boston Marathon bombing a few years ago is very interesting it's interesting that there was an overwhelming impulse on the part of Americans many of whom say they don't believe in the death penalty that that that trial should actually be first and most importantly held in the federal courts where there is a death penalty for that kind of crime rather than in the Massachusetts state courts where there is no death penalty and you also note that even though there are many let's just talk partisan politics here for a moment there are many prominent Democrats who say they opposed the death penalty they didn't oppose it in that case well if you don't oppose it in that case then you don't oppose the death penalty in principle I think it's I'm not even trying to make this a partisan issue that this is just a confusion that comes to us when we say the death penalty has often been misapplied the death penalty should not be broadly applied the death penalty should be applied with equity and cause and effect should be a part of the context here which is the point god makes in in Genesis chapter 9 and when you look at the United States we have a really bad record of equity when it comes to the death penalty over the last century it's very very difficult for any wealthy white person to ever actually be executed by the States not impossible and it's extremely rare because given our our court system you can afford the kind of forensic evidence and the kind of legal support let's just make it almost impossible to get a death penalty conviction or the death penalty carried out if you're poor and minority and in particular African American you you're much more in danger of being executed so Madison it's a good question and Christians should never celebrate the death penalty there sometimes in our political order a certain kind of facile superficial almost celebration of the death penalty you know the the Bible doesn't say that punishment is never about retribution it just makes very clear that's not the ultimate issue and we are to take no pleasure in any kind of retribution that doesn't mean that we don't as a society and as individuals take some moral satisfaction in justice rightly applied that that's actually what we should demand and expect it's a heavy question it's a good question for Christians to discuss and one of the first things we have to do is kind of peel the onion and make sure we're actually talking about the death penalty and not the death penalty wrongly applied there was an article just this week published by a major conservative in the United States suggesting that the reason the death penalty should be eradicated is because we as human beings are fallible we can make mistakes and you know that's that's absolutely true that that we as as human beings are very fallible that's why the evidentiary standard in the old testament for the death penalty was so high right down to witnesses that were require multiple witnesses in order for the death penalty to be carried out and so we should expect our justice system to have every safeguard possible but not as a way of avoiding justice but of making sure we get justice right I think you so much for the question Madison chase from Birmingham Alabama how should Christian couples decide on how many children to have given the command to be fruitful and multiply chase thank you for the question I've written a lot about that and I say that only because I can say in print more than I can say in in voice in an answer like this and the first thing the Christian worldview tells us is exactly what you cite from Genesis 1 we are to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and that's not just let's have a lot of babies and let's have a big population in the covenant theology of the scripture that is God will be glorified in more of the creatures that bear his image multiple buying and filling the earth the assignment given human beings is God's Way of saying I desire to see my own glory magnified in this creation through the abundance of image bearers and so you know there's a sense in which that's the way we should think about it's Christian parents we're not having children or not just expecting a baby we are awaiting the arrival of another image bearer of God and that's really powerful but how many children should Christian parents have let me just say that one of the great the great realities it is a problem I believe one of the great realities we're gonna have to face is is the fact we're not having nearly enough babies even as a society and so if you take the front page of the review section of The Wall Street Journal this past weekend it's basically raising the the big issues of having too many old people and not enough young people and you say well how can you say too many old people well of course that betrays the problem we can never have too many old people we can actually never have too many of any people but it's speaking of a demographic imbalance but it's not really that we have too many old peoples that we don't have enough young people there are countries like Japan that are right now facing a demographic catastrophe because they simply aren't having enough babies and by the way they're also not having enough marriage and they're not having enough sex and I know that's not perhaps what you expected to hear on ask anything but that's true in Japan and some other countries are kind of turning into sexless societies in which it's just a life of isolation especially in urban areas and that's not God's plan God's plan is for human sexuality to drive a man and a woman together in the Covenant of marriage and to unify them in marriage and then to glorify God in the receiving of children now how many children well this is something that also has changed somewhat so if you look at let's just say Western Europe 200 years ago because things began to change just about that time if you go back about 200 years then the the average woman was bearing something around five to eight children in the course of a lifetime that's a lot that's a lot of babies now only about half of them and in some cases less than half of them survived into adulthood which is one of the reasons why they had a lot of children they also had a lot of children because they didn't have a lot of options with the contraceptive revolution not coming in reality until about the midpoint of the 20th century but now you're looking at that that that that fertility rate eventual fertility rate total fertility rate is is often called by demographers you know going under to significantly under to in some societies disastrously under two but if you ask how many babies would a couple that say marrying at twenty-five or twenty-six how many babies would they have well given health and and and given marriage and the normal childbearing process then the answer could be in the teens the answer could be in the teens and so if that's not happening then there's some kind of planning that is going on so let's just cut off the teams and let's just say eight because that that would just take us back 200 years let's just say eight we know the number would actually be higher than that because of far it advanced health that we have now that factors into reproduction and successful pregnancy so let's just say eight well the fact is most Christian couples aren't having eight even if they're committed to multiply and being fruitful and filling the earth which means there's something going on whether it's contraception or some form of what's called natural family planning or just some kind of spacing of the children and I'll put it this way I think every Christian couple is obligated morally to be fully open to the gift of children I get in a lot of trouble for saying that I just can't come to any other biblical conclusion and I stayed it very carefully and I do so consistently if a Christian couple is married they must be fully open to the gift of children that is they must expect that children will be a part of the equation and welcome that and be happy about that there's a basic Christian view principle here not just obedience to the clear statement of Scripture but it's it's a long centuries and centuries old form of Christian reasoning against dividing the good what God has put together let no man put asunder God put marriage together for the conjugal union for fellowship this is on the Book of Common Prayer by the way and our common wedding form when we talk about why God ordained marriage is for the the natural passions as the old Book of Common Prayer says rightly directed and the fellowship that the one has with the other the husband and the wife the wife with the husband and with the gift of children for the increase of the race the human race is those are some of the first words drawn from Scripture just as the the purpose of marriage you begin to divide the goods of marriage and you weaken marriage and that's exactly what we've done by the way we've done it not only in infertility and in childbirth and child rearing we've also done it in separating reproduction from sex and sex from reproduction and well you can go down the whole list so chase I think Christian couples fully open to the gift to children may for all kinds of different reasons come to a different conclusion but how many children have this is that this is the point that Christian couple can never be disappointed to be given the gift of a child never discipline it can never be failure to have a child that has to be God's gift and that success and and even though there may be the immediate recognition we weren't expecting this child and both of my parents by the way figured out that they weren't planned both of them much much much much younger than their next sibling but both of them loved by their parents and received with joy and and and that's the way it should be and you know Christians having big families and there's another side to this and that's why you have to be very careful my wife and I would you know just just affirm that there are many couples out there who struggle with infertility and and we did we we the Lord did not give us children the way or on the timing that we expected but we're very thankful the Lord did allow us to have two unspeakably thankful but so you just look at it a couple's and we know what's going on there that's that that's just not the case but but welcoming children you know the bigger the the bigger the family sitting in the pew and and and and going here and there there's a testimony to the fact something has to explain this and you know the secular world has caught on to the fact that these big families are tied to a Christian biblical worldview you know well that's not accidental there's a bit of testimony there as well thanks so much for the question chase and and by the way again go to the will put up there on the on the Facebook page links it'll take you some of the articles in which I've addressed this and book projects in the past from California how should we as Christians deal with PTSD it seems wrong to suffer from something like this I feel like I should have more peace and rest in him no name in this question for California but you know who you are and I hope by addressing this question I'm able to speak not only to you but to many others and I'm going to do something I've never done before in this question and I'm going to tell you that I was awakened to this in the most unexpected way as a fairly young man young president here as a matter of fact I I was with a man whose heroic in my sights he was an attorney from Houston Texas and a highly decorated marine he he had been a survivor of both evil Jima and Chosin Reservoir two of the worst battles in marine history one of them in second world war one of them in the Korean War by the time I knew him he was quite advanced in years and it was just one of the boldest bravest men of character that that I had had ever known and in the course of conversation I came to discover that that what we would call PTSD was very much a part of of his experience it was just something that it was unavoidable seeing what he saw and experiencing what he experienced there in those two horrifying battles and then in the context of war and and so here's the thing I want to say to you I was struck then by the fact that if this man who's one of the strongest most faithful Christians I know if if he a half century after world war two in the Korean War struggles of some of these things then I'm convinced it is real it's absolutely real and since then I've come to know much more about it and I simply want to say to you as a believer you say that you feel like you should have more peace I pray that for you I pray that for you but I just want to affirm that what you experienced and our experience in with PTSD is real and it's not a sign of a lack of your confidence in Christ it is not a sign of a gap in your theology and it certainly doesn't doesn't prove any such thing the reality is that when you think about the trauma of violence like that and the trauma of war you're talking about a horror that thankfully most human beings will never know and of course PTSD comes not only from war it can come from other things as well first responders I know several Christian first responders who struggled with PTSD and and and there are there are any number of other things even some of you might not think about like emergency room physicians and others who also and can have PTSD so I just want to speak to you words of comfort to say I hope you are in conversation in a good biblical Church with people who can understand this and understand you and help you I hope you reach out for help especially through biblical counseling which is not a sign of weakness the very fact that you have PTSD indicates you've been through something that demonstrates you are not weak but strong but we as human beings are all frail and we're held together only by Christ and so I would just pray for you number one a comfort to your heart to know that you are not sinning by PTSD that is that is not something you have done that is something that is done too you know this is where we have to push back on the therapeutic revolution wants to say everything is something done to me but with PTSD we know enough to know that is a real that is a real challenge a real pain and a real pattern that that is something that that happened to you and to many others but we also know that Christ is is sovereign and gracious and that he redeems those who are his own and he he conforms us to his image by the the Holy Spirit and by the the preaching of the word of God and so I I hope and pray that with every passing day there's new strength and a new comfort and new confidence but I also want to say I understand what if you could speak to me you would likely say in response and that is that many days that's exactly what it feels like but some days it doesn't so lean into the body of Christ and surround yourself with Christians who even though they may not have experienced the same thing know and love you and will know and love you through this in the bonds of Christian love so thank you so much for the the courage even in asking that question Anthony from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in our current moment is becoming clearer than ever that our loyalty to Christ and the church must always come before political party how would you recommend thoughtfully evaluating candidates instead of simply voting along a party line well I talk about this very regularly on the briefing and and and try to speak of it pretty comprehensively the reality is and this is something interesting because it comes up in a conversation very regularly indeed one I had yesterday so the question is how do we separate the political equation from the partisan equation in the United States and the answer is just to speak candidly you generally can't and and and what I mean by that is of course you're electing an individual not a party but the way politics works in the United States and what is basically a two-party system and Electoral College is going to remain a two-party system then what you have is the fact that you're never merely electing an individual you are electing a party then and so let me just give you one example of what I mean by that you can say that that what I am doing is simply electing an individual but you're actually electing an individual that is a part of a caucus and either the house or the Senate depending upon if you're thinking about Congress and and the majority party in that caucus establishes the leadership of that house so that is I'll simply tell you if you talk to Washington insiders and watch that's about half the equation as a matter of fact that's an underestimate it's probably 80% of the political equation in terms of what happens in law as to which party is providing the leadership in that chamber and it's because if you are not in leadership your laws almost never even what you might propose as a bill is probably never even going to see the light of day and if the majority is large enough you won't even have any say in how the legislation is eventually framed so that that's just a part you might say well that's Genesis 3:4 yeah well yes so that's where it is and you know just to paraphrase Winston Churchill it turns out the democracy is the worst form of government ever planned or are designed by human beings except for all the others previously tried that's a paraphrase but you get the point there is no perfect political system so I would say that it's not it's not ever possible in most elections to get away from the partisan it's less important perhaps in some governor races than it which is why everyone's why you get an independent governor it's very unusual particularly it intends to be in a state with a small population but that that happens more so than in Congress because even though it used to be said people don't elect a party when it comes to Congress especially the House of Representatives they elect an individual I think with the nationalization of politics especially through the media that's become less true and so I appreciate the question Anthony but you say loyalty and that's what's really important and so you begin as a Christian saying our loyalty is to Christ and the church that for political party yes that's true and and and that that's emphatically important to state otherwise we're in some sort of political or partisan idolatry which is a sin Christians must never allow ourselves to commit but a partisan identification in our form of government and our electoral process is shorthand for the positions taken by that individual there are some outliers but the outliers have almost no influence because it's whoever's in the leadership of the party in the caucus of whichever chamber that's going to set the agenda so you really can't very much escape the partisan issues and in the United States and I talked about this so regularly on the briefing trying to give not only analysis but illustration the two parties are now so divided on major worldview issues that the swing vote in the United States is just extremely low we're gonna find out tomorrow just how low it is it whatever that swing vote is tomorrow is more likely to be not people deciding that they're not making a decision yet but it's who votes so that's something interesting to watch I'll talk about this on the briefing on Wednesday but when you talk about that's a swing district it's really probably not a swing of people who voted one way and then voted the other way the swing is more likely to be people who did vote in people who didn't vote there's a few exceptions there but again later this week we'll look at some really good analysis of just how small that swing vote is by some really good analysis it could be as low as four percent of the electorate that the that actually might vote for a Barack Obama and Donald Trump for example or or go back and forth on other issues that's an extremely small number so in a fallen world our loyalty is to Christ our loyalty certainly ultimately is not the political party but when we go into the voting booth we are inescapably making a partisan decision when we're in the American political context and then we have to hope and pray to do the best and most faithful within that context if I could design the political system especially the electoral system I might come up with something better but no one's given me that authority and and that's where we are Isiah I'll be coming to Boyce college next fall what things you'd recommend to do in preparation for this step in my life well Isiah god bless you we can't wait to have you on campus first of all and III love the question I would say you know just get yourself ready by number one experiencing the things you will have the opportunity to experience right now and what I assumed your senior year in high school you won't have the opportunity to experience later and I don't know your context I just know your name but I'm gonna assume that you are the son of parents with potential siblings in the home let me just say as both one who was a young man and went to college and as the parent of two young people went to college I would simply say I think when the most important things you can do is do everything you can with your family with your brothers and your sisters and with your parents that you can right now because you're gonna be shocked at just how fast things change when you go off to college I was the firstborn I went off to college I came back and my how things had changed yeah at one point I left home and came back they put in a pool where was that one I was at home but that's just that's just a symbol of the fact that things change things move on and you have an opportunity right now to have some really quality time with your family that will change you'll have quality time in the future but it's not gonna be the same when you're living at home and by the way we don't need young people just hanging on at home that that's a problem in our society this is the right transition it's the right time but I would encourage you that way and enjoy the friends you have in high school yeah because you know you know that they're important but things are gonna change when you go to college the reality is that most people and their 30s have many friends from college and Murphy from high school it's because the légion experience creates a whole new and much more intense friend structure then it's true in high school finish well in your studies in high school finished that well as you're getting ready so I guess you might be surprised because I'm not giving you a lot of academic advice it's because my guess is you know all that already I'm not I'm not suggesting a reading list I am suggesting read and you know just just get ready but the reality is it's preparing your heart as you pray and get ready to come to Boise it's it's enjoying a family and home and high school and church you know just the same way you think about your family think about your church don't you you want to get everything you can in order to be as ready as you can be to be a faithful Christian in this next stage of your life and again Isaiah we can't wait to have you at Boyce college and bring some friends with you from Emory low Texas Alan what is your understanding of the correct biblical position with regard to the potential nomination of a woman as leader of the Southern Baptist Convention Wow as leader I'm going to assume that means as president of the Southern Baptist Convention I think that's that's probably what is meant here and there's been some talk about that so I wasn't plotting and planning to answer that question publicly in November of 2018 I answered it in a big public setting in one way when we were at the Southern Baptist Convention this this past summer in Dallas I'm gonna answer it exactly the same way as a business meeting there's absolutely no reason that a woman couldn't be president of the Southern Baptist Convention if that's the responsibility the appointment of committees and the the appointment and nominations there's no reason that can't be fulfilled by a woman and if that's the responsibility the president of the Southern Baptist Convention then then there's no reason a woman should not do it I simply want to say however I don't think that's the most important responsibility functionally of the president of the Southern Baptist Convention that's the reason why that president generally been a pastor and so without apology holding to a biblical understanding of the teaching office and pastoral responsibilities in the church if if the president of the Southern Baptist Convention is someone who is a pastor or who is is functioning in a pastor context or in the preaching and teaching context of the word then then that's going to be a man and that is one of the most important responsibilities of the president of the Southern Baptist Convention it's to preach and so you know the convention is legally only two days a year that leaves over 360 days when other things need to be done by the president what the president generally does is go and preach and and so if let me put it this way I want to answer it very carefully this is and not at all to add integrate or fail to respect the gifts and abilities of women but that's just true in the local church as well where we talk about the teaching office and make that distinction and complementarianism and our understanding of the right ordering of the church by the word according to God's intention and to his glory and so in the Southern Baptist Convention we have the same issue and so in a local church there's probably no reason why a woman couldn't appoint committees or do or do any I mean the executive function is not what's at stake here it's the pastoral function and the teaching office and I think functionally and practically there's no way to separate those well or easily in the Southern Baptist Convention so that's the best way I know to answer it I guess I put it another way I would say that if a woman were to be elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention that would require a change in the way if we're going to be biblically faithful that would require a change in what the president is understood to do so I want to answer that as faithfully and then as carefully as I can I understand why by the way there are people who made that kind of suggestion especially on the other side of of some issues in which mistreatment of women became very much a part of the public conversation and and I think the people who made that suggestion you know they certainly weren't calling for us to abandon compliment arianism but i think many of the people who said it not not all but many probably do not fully understand what the president of the Southern Baptist Convention does and I think they probably failed to understand the the huge pastoral responsibility and the public leadership responsibilities tied to the teaching office that I I think is rightfully a part of what it means to be president of the Southern Baptist Convention question Tim from Idaho Falls how should Christians view consuming animal products on the one hand God seems to allow it in Genesis but on the other hand some have raised concerns about the health impacts the humane treatment of animals and environmental impact so all those latter things you mentioned Tim are not inconsequential the Christian worldview tells us we should think carefully about respect for animals by the way it's respect that doesn't mean not using them because the biblical theology makes very clear God has given us animals for our good and for our use not for our abuse and and this means that we are as stewards to have great respect for animals and to demonstrate that respect we would be the first people who would say there should be no maltreatment there should be no question of abuse there should be no mistreatment or disrespect of animals that God made for his glory not in His image but for his glory but the Bible is really clear and by the way it shows up earlier than most people think and so let me tell you where I think the first use of an animal comes not even by human beings but by God and that's in Genesis 3 because in Genesis 3 Adam and Eve when they sin and hide themselves they understand their nakedness and they made for themselves aprons of leaves they fashioned aprons but that wasn't going to do it wasn't gonna last and God brought forth his judgment upon their sin his condemnation and the curse upon their sin but then to provide for them God gave them aprons made of animal skins far more permanent and and there's a principle there isn't there there's a reason why leather lasts so long and and why we use it as we do and I think there should be no apology for that especially if it's in the context in which the animals there's no disrespect it's simply the use that God has given us I was asked the other day by a really smart group of young Christians about vegans and if vegans are sinning no vegans aren't sinning but but one of the problems is is that the difficulty of say universalizing it if if someone is harmed by veganism then that would be the problem but just just not eating animals is not important but but mandating that is something else there's a this is I think a Pauline principle - of respect one for the other and by the way even those of us who ate animals we don't need all the same animals and a part of that is not theologically defined it's just culturally defined but I think we should have no reluctance whatsoever you speak of the environmental issues yes we should take that into account and you speak of of the possible disrespect and health impacts well there's there's health impact it should certainly be a part of our Christian worldview concern as well but in almost all these cases when you look at it if God's given us a gift it's for our good here's that there's another basic biblical affirmation of God's given us a gift it's for our good every gift can be misused every gift can be contorted and our use of every gift can be corrupted but but it really is not theologically let's just say sound or advisable to say that what God has given us is not good for us I would I would warn us about that very carefully question some people say Colten I think some people say that God does not care who you marry as long as the marriage and home followed biblical standards Ephesians five others say that because God has a plan for us that he does have a specific path espouse for us could you explain whether God does or does not have a specific person he wants us to marry yes he does and he has a specific place he wants you to live he has a specific job he wants you to have we know right now or specific there's probably a specific book God wants you to read given his sovereignty that means there's nothing that God does not intend for us or ordained for us but that doesn't mean that we're not called to make decisions and to seek by Scripture and and by scriptural reasoning and and by the common sense that God has given us to try to figure it out now let me let me kind of put your mind at rest here for a moment because the question kind of assumes that you know there are over seven billion human beings how do I know which one of those seven billion to marry I do this with groups of young people all the time I'll just do it as quickly as I can on this the question is a lot easier than you think okay so number one if if you are a young man you are to marry only a woman okay that's that that eliminates not quite half but almost half of all humanity so your questions already been cut in half who might have marry that that was easy with what we'd cut in half and then scripture says if you're a believer you are only to marry a fellow believer well that's cutting you the half in more than half if you look at the total of humanity let's say you're down to 3.5 billion from 7 billion you look at the number of Christians then you're to cut that by about 70% of the half that is left and here's something else I think you're probably going to marry someone that you will meet so that's going to cut down that portion of humanity to an extremely small relative number over against 7 billion so we're making progress and then you are likely to marry someone to whom you are attracted and by the way you're probably going to enter into a sustained conversation with someone with whom you're attracted in one way or another but I mean attracted in the way that a man is attracted to a woman a woman is attracted to a man and in that sense you're really beginning to cut it down and then you're gonna want to marry someone that your brothers and sisters in Christ see as good for you as a spouse and so that's gonna cut it down a whole lot and so and what I'm saying is don't worry about this and and and and it certainly don't worry that you're going to miss the one that God has for you and this is just a big question of God's will there's no biblical precedent for understanding that God's will is something hidden you got to go find or it's some kind of code that you've got to have the key to to decipher you're not looking for a secret decoder ring and you're not looking for a hidden spouse that you're somehow defined by some spiritual travail you are instead to be looking for under godly wisdom as you are seeking to be a faithful Christian you're going to be looking for if you're a man than a woman if you're a woman than a man then someone who looks like that individual is qualified to be a spouse now is certainly a faithful Christian and and then you're going to trust to that in a process of getting know that individual and if you're a young man you've got to start learning how to take the initiative in this and and you start learning this is someone that I think I might want to spend time with and before you know it you're in love with that person and you have a relationship and you just to begin to believe I can't be who I need to be in Christ without this individual I want to spend the rest of my life with this woman if you're your man and and then it that just might be a really good sign that this is the one person out of all of humanity that God has intended for you to be but then the way you start the question Colten and we'll go back to that some people say that God does not care who you marry well forget that for a moment God cares about everything and he speaks to this even in Scripture as long as the marriage and the home follow biblical standpoints a biblical pattern well that's really true let me tell you if you are married who is the one person to whom you're supposed married the one to whom you're married that's a biblical logic and you are to find satisfaction and faithfulness with the one to whom you are married and not look over your shoulder that's that's a sin that's not only a sin against your spouse your husband or your wife it's a sin against the goodness of God and God's plan for your life all right a similar kind of question this is Matt this is a question we've dealt with before what is meant by the phrase husband of one wife as it pertains to the qualification for elders and deacons is it merely a prohibition against polygamy does it speak to the commitment of the man to his wife does it set forth this guideline that no man if divorced should be allowed to take the role of elder or deacon let's just say certainly it eliminates polygamy but the problem with limiting the meaning of that verse in 1st Timothy 3 to polygamy is that polygamy was generally not legal in most of the places to which that that text would apply so evidently that's not the main background problem the main background problem is probably what what we would call in this country now serial monogamy which is a man putting away a wife and getting another wife and and perhaps even putting her away and getting another wife that was very common in the Roman Empire in the first century and by the way women were very vulnerable and abused and you can understand just how devastating that would be covenant faithfulness is God's reputation as God's glory and he calls for his church to be led by those who will demonstrate that kind of covenant faithfulness so the question quickly came does that mean that no man if divorce should be allowed to take on the role of elder or deacon I can't say that when I can say is that what's being held forth in Scripture is the minimum expectation that that individual will be known as the husband of one wife I'll have to leave it to the biblical logic guided by Scripture of a local biblical rightly ordered congregation to come to a conclusion as to exactly how that's to be applied in the case of any individuals remember that the list of qualifications in first Timothy three also in Titus includes that but more than that being a person of good reputation and you can not to mention able to teach and and rightly ordered family and all the rest so here's where different congregations might come to a different answer to that question but I don't think the question is well answered as just a concept it's got to be a specific case in which the church is reasoning faithfully from Scripture and they will have to trust the local church to do that but it does hold up the fact that the picture of covenant faithfulness that we should look for is individual as the husband of one wife who is a picture of that covenant faithfulness not only even in the context of marriage but especially in the context of marriage all right it's always interesting to see one of the kinds of questions that come and it's always interesting to know that wherever you find Christians you find questions how is the study of history Brad asked helped me in my personal life and ministry oh just enormous Lee I've been fascinated with history ever since I was just a very young child and I I think to me it's the great display of the Providence of God it's the great display of the story of humanity from which we learned so much you know if you look at the Bible let's look at the Old Testament first of all just look at how much of the Old Testament is history how do we know who we are how did Israel know who it was you also look at a text whether it's Deuteronomy 6 or Joshua 4 and when the child comes to the father and says what is the meaning of these statues who are in Joshua 4 what are the meaning of these stones then the father responds with history we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt but God brought us out by his mighty hand and his outstretched arm that that's history and and so I don't know how to think about the world except with historical awareness and and by the way that that means not only the history of Israel but you look at the Bible and and the New Testament how much of the New Testament is history Luke tells us that he writes his gospel precisely so that the office to whom he addresses it would have an orderly and accurate account of the things concerning Jesus and and then he writes the book of Acts and by the way you put Luke the biggest and longest of the Gospels with the book of Acts consider how much of the New Testament just in those two books is history the history of Jesus and in the book of Acts it's called the Acts of the Apostles called that by the Christian Church which means the history of apostolic Christianity so that and then you expand that to world history as well the early church did that put the history of Israel in the history of the church within the context of the history of humanity that turns out to be really important some of the most important Christian doctrines were hammered out over against the question of history one of the greatest books of the history of Christian theology the City of God by Agustin in the late 4th early fifth centuries was how are we to understand the gospel and the church over against the history of Rome so Christians are struggle with this and from the very beginning and I'll just say something else Brad and this is just as honest as I can be I find history the most fascinating subject reading history and historical biography just it it absolutely fascinates me I want to know why I want to know how I want to know what came before what I want to know the persons involved in history just last night I was reading the second volume I've read just in the last couple of weeks on the history of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire looking at at that those two stories which are a part of the human story without which you simply can't understand the world as we know it today and you can't understand the Reformation without understanding the Ottoman Empire you you can't understand world affairs it's it's all tied together so there you go Henry Ford I think it was who said that history is bunk and someone else said history is just one thing after another history's bunked and everything's bunked because you can't even tell your own story you can't even explain your life without history no one may yet have written it in a book but it's history just the same okay my son this is Aaron in st. Louis my son is in the first grade in a public charter school recently a girl in the class I seen this coming once to be called by a different name and it's telling students she's a boy to our understanding the teacher allowed the girl to stand up and tell the class to call her by her other name the boy and breathlessness my son seems clueless how do you recommend dialoguing about this with our son and the teacher administration Aaron God bless you this is one of the problems even with public charter schools so let me just put my beliefs on the table here I firmly believe that the eventually Christians are going to find themselves drawn to the logic of schools that are Christian not only in leadership and not only in curriculum but in the student body and held to that I believe that's the only way we're gonna be able to maintain any kind of sense even an ontology that is on being and truth and and I think the danger is this you talking about dialoguing with your son and you say he's clueless well my goodness a six year old ship boy should be clueless about how to deal with this his cluelessness is actually the truest most accurate response to this imaginable cluelessness is is a sign of sanity and a sign of health and and the problem is going to be not as cluelessness but trying to get him out of that cluelessness because what happens in education and what happens in any social context and there's another thing Christian parents need to think about is the first question and this this bringing it the at the end of the hour this is this brings us back but just think about this we're social creatures never more urgently than when we're young you put a six year old or a 16 year old a 20 year old in college you put that individual in a social kind texts where everything reinforces the fact that this transgender revolution is is good and real and to be celebrated then how in the world do you expect a six-year-old not to have his emotions rewired his intuitions recalibrated you you you may even be able to hold on the worldview issues but you can't keep the emotional responses the intuitional recalibrations from taking place and I think that's how the moral revolutionaries intend to win and this is something by the way that is a big discussion amongst Christian school leaders not only in the elementary in high school but also in college speaking to a group of college presidents just the other day and making the point if you allow this kind of this kind of revolution in your school then this is what your school is going to be well that's just the bottom line that's just the way it is because when you have a six-year-old I think it was a girl you say here who wants be known as a boy you either have to say that's real or it's not real that's right or it's not right it's possible or it's not possible that's good or it's not good and and emotionally it comes down to we're gonna celebrate this or we can't celebrate this it's coming extry I don't know how you expect to six year old in that context not to celebrate and again I'll expand that to a 16 year old or a 26 year old I I we need wisdom and grace to understand this and and obviously we need wisdom and grace to to show love to an individual whether the individual six or sixty six who's declaring this gender dysphoria but celebrating a lie which is what we have to say we're we're being demanded to do here that's just not faithful Christianity I think we also have to understand look and this goes back again to the first question people are saying we need to be Messiah logical and we need to be Christians in all these settings I think a good case can be made there but I don't think honestly I'm just perhaps never said it so strongly in a public setting before so I'm just gonna say it now I think it's one thing for that to be true of parents or that can be very important I think it's another thing to think that you're actually doing that with your children I think with your children you're actually more than anything else handing them over and even though your family might have some kind of missiological impact I would I would have to get that in some other way because I think there's just no way Christian parents can even come to understand what's actually happening when they turn their children over to a school it sure better be a school you trust look I have to watch my emotions and intuitions and hold them in check to biblical Christianity in my 60th year that's a humbling reality it requires the means of grace that requires Scripture it requires careful thinking it requires a Christian Pearce structure otherwise known most importantly is the faithful gospel church the local church how do we expect a six-year-old to handle that how sad it is we're living in a society that has gone this insane and and so insane that the greatest victim in all of this is that six-year-old girl and the many others that she represents who've been told you're not who you are you're actually someone else or is even saying to children part of your responsibility now is to figure out who you are I'm going to tell you that I think if I'm saying a part of the reason I'm saying is because when I was six years old no one told me I had to figure out who I was instead God told me who I was and my parents told me who I was a culture rightly at that time told me who I was and the scripture tells me who I am I'm thankful for that and and we're on scriptural grounds the culture speaks something that isn't true we can't join with a culture no matter what the pressure against us oh my goodness thank you for that question I end it with the the heavy heart of reckon nything yes we are in a society where a Christian father urgently has to ask this question about a six-year-old boy in school just underlines again why we as Christians have to be thinking Christians and why we have to think out loud and why we have to think together why we have to think comprehensively according to the Christian worldview why we have to think according to Scripture which means we have to know what the scripture teaches we have to understand the Christian worldview we have to continually expand and deepen our understanding of that worldview and we have to represent and remind ourselves and be grounded in the truth that the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must never if faith will run from the questions but run to the questions if you can think of a better way of answering these questions I hope you'll bring that to my attention in the meantime thank you for joining me today for ask anything live it's been a real privilege to spend this time with you you can find a lot of resources at albert Mohler com and this is of course from the campus of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and I certainly hope you'll go and visit our website if God's called you to ministry we would certainly love to talk about how God has called you to be here in order to be trained in faithfulness we're on the campus of Boyce College if you're looking for a college either for yourself or for a young person you know that stands without hesitation upon the kind of truth and the the comprehensiveness of the Christian worldview we've been trying to talk about here I hope you go to Boyce College comm in any event we'll look forward to future conversations and in the meantime keep thinking let's think aloud and think with each other i'm albert Mohler thanks for joining me for ask anything live until next time you

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Length: 68min 37sec (4117 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018